


I wanna make up my mind (but I don't know myself)

by Laslus



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: (I mention the nazis bc of hydra in this fyi), (but he doesn't know), (but not really), (they are all nice i promisse), Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternative Universe - Spy, Avengers Family, Dom/sub Undertones, Enemies to Lovers, Espionage, Eventual Smut, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Friends With Benefits, Getting Together, Hydra (Marvel), Hydra Steve Rogers, Identity Porn, Jealousy, Kinda, M/M, Multi, Polyamory, Polyamory Negotiations, Secret Identity, Villain Tony Stark, listen tony stark is a brat, look i just want good thinks for the team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-11
Updated: 2020-09-11
Packaged: 2021-03-06 19:27:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 46,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26414131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Laslus/pseuds/Laslus
Summary: Steve Rogers gets assigned to go undercover at a Stark's gala to stop Iron Man, a known weapons dealer. Things do not go as expectedORalternative universe where Tony decided to be stealthy, Steve was hired as spy and Bucky has a type.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes/Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 14
Kudos: 182
Collections: WinterIronShield Bang Ultimate Collection





	I wanna make up my mind (but I don't know myself)

**Author's Note:**

> Hey!!  
> This was written for the WinterIronShield reverse!Bang and... god did it turn out bigger than expected. I hope you all enjoy this! the art that inspired this is by Hazein and can be found here: https://hazeinart.tumblr.com/post/628984726293807104/wis-bang-post-james-bond-au-highly-inspired make sure to check it out, it's wonderful!  
> Thank you Haizen for your patience, kindness and overall for being a great partner!
> 
> Tittle from the song Genghis Khan by Miike Snow, which inspired a scene in this ^^
> 
> Anyways, enjoy this fic!

The closest thing to a routine Steve had ever since he woke up was going to Shield’s gym, which was kind of depriment, if you asked him. The place was a shitshow. It was dark, the punch bags were breakable and they always carried a background smell of dried blood, no matter how early he arrived. The only thing going for it is that it was usually pretty empty, the only people who come do it to fight over at the ring and he has no interest in sparring with them. So it was the place Steve started every single one of his mornings. Not exactly like clockwork, because _his mornings_ might mean 3 am after he woke up from a nightmare, unable to fall back asleep, instead of the usual 6 o’clock, but it's the closest thing he has to routine.

“You know, one day Shield will start charging you for all those broken punchbags”

He looked over at Natasha leaning against the doorframe, and dropped his hands on his sides. “I will let you know the last time I broke them was two weeks ago.”

She chuckled “Is this your personal record?”

He laughed back. “Yes, as a matter of fact it _is._ It’s not my fault they are cheap.” there's a beat of silence left too long hanging “So, did you just come for my charming company?”

“Fury wants to talk to you.“ She says “new mission, if I had to guess.”

Steve held back a smile. It hadn’t been long since his last mission, Shield was busy and the world was apparently messier than when he last left, but it had been long enough. Steve, or _The Nomad_ , was a little of a secret weapon: when information was too well buried, when things are likely to get a little too messy, when they can’t afford to lose another life. He wasn’t complaining, he liked it better like that, but it did leave him with more time in his hands than he knew what to do with.

“Great, If I need backup can I…”

“Sam and I are free and waiting for your orders, _Nomad_.” She winked at him

He smiled at her before leaving for Fury's office. Natasha and Sam were two of the few people who knew who he was and of those, the only he cared to take on any mission. He didn’t like putting other lives in danger and usually did a pretty good job alone, but Shield didn’t enjoy the idea of leaving their Captain out without supervision. This was better than getting assigned random Shield agents.

“Come in” Fury said as he knocked on his door. Behind his big desk with an eyepatch he looked too much like a comic book villain. “Good to see you, Captain Rogers, how are you today?”

“Natasha said you had a mission.”

He lifted a single eyebrow, his mouth holding a small smile “She did? Well, have a seat then.” He picked a file from his desk, offering it to Steve as he sat in front of him “Shield has been observing some sections of the underground market for a while and found very… unusual transactions. How familiar are you with Iron Man?”

Steve lifted a brown, flipping through the pages of the file “The weapons dealer? Not much, I know a couple agents that crossed his path, word is things got ugly pretty fast. Why, is he acting up again?”

“Iron Man is a very hard man to track. His transactions always happen in unusual places, always at night, with as far as we can tell no one involved but himself. We’ve been trying to catch him ever since he broke into a Shield’s warehouse last year.”

Steve lifted a brown “He stole from us? Guy’s got guts, I’ll give him that. What did he take?”

“That’s classified, I’m afraid. Above my paygrade as well as yours.” His eye had a weird spark to it and Steve only nodded “But the matter at hand is that we have good intel he will be trying a translation at the annual Stark Beneficial Gala.”

“A _gala_? Why?”

“Beats me, Iron Man is known for making cryptic choices. We want you inside of that party, I already got your invitation and your most generous donation to the Maria Stark Association. Your mission is to find all you can about this transaction. But _don't engage._ Anything suspicious gets reported back to me, got it?”

An _undercover mission_? That’s a first.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. Have agents Romanoff and Wilson to run as backup. I don’t want you to engage with Iron Man, do you hear me? Stopping the transaction is a secondary goal, this might be our only lead on him and I don’t want us to burn bridges by telling him we are on his tail.”

Steve frowned. He was usually the braws of any situation instead of brains. If they wanted a high ranked agent to flirt and sweet talk the public they could ask for Garret or Bobbi. Hell, Natasha was a rank below, but better than both of them combined.

“Yes, sir.”

“Good. You have two weeks to prepare. In this file is everything a 7 level has clearance on Iron Man” It was not a very heavy file “But feel free to do your own research.”

“Sir, how can I do my research if I don’t have clearance on most of his documents? I can’t lead a mission if I don’t know the endgame.”

Fury’s eye shifted. It had that same spark from when he said he didn’t have the ranks to know what Iron Man stole. The same urge to it. For a moment, Steve thought Fury was going to say something big, spill a secret or scream in anger. But instead, he just shrugged and added “Welcome to working at an Intelligence Agency, Captain, our secrets have secrets. Now go, and if you see Agent Barton please tell him I want a word with him.”

Steve bit his questions back and nodded, leaving the room. He needed to look at the file, maybe open some mental map on it. He could do it in Shield's facility: they had dozens of briefing rooms that could be used by the staff and locked safely. Something about this felt strange, however.

Maybe it was the way Fury looked at him. It was unusual for Fury not to have clearance on something, he was level 9. The only person above him, Director Pierce, was never seen in meetings and Fury himself was the supervision to most of the work done by the agents. This was big, dangerously big, and Fury wanted him to unravel it.

So instead of staying he went to his small Brooklyn apartment. It felt safer, somehow. He also had Natasha check for any bugs or hidden cameras a few weeks ago, so he was sure he wasn't being tagged: being Shield's favorite agent wasn't always pleasant.

When he first was allowed to leave Shield’s facilities and move on his own, he promised not to bring work around the house. A small apartment in Brooklyn was exactly what Steve and Bucky planned on sharing after the war. He had wanted to cherish that place: Grow some plants around the windows, put some paintings on the walls. Maybe have Sam and Natasha over for drinks. It's what Buck would've done.

But instead he left it empty, with old pizza on the fridge and three cactus that managed to survive his negligence.

Steve stared at the bare wall of his living room with a sign, before looking at the file on his hand. He had red thread somewhere. It was not exactly art, but at least he was going to hang something on that.

He started by placing a photo of Iron Man right at the center. It was in black and white, taken by a security camera seconds before it shut down, so the resolution wasn't great, but you could still see the man looking at it. He wore an iron mask, which Steve deduced is where he got his nickname from, that looked like an armour face. His eyes stared straight into the camera, it looked like they had lights embedded in them, but that could be just an effect from the camera. Steve stared back.

He kept pinning things to the wall, connecting the information with the red thread. Iron Man appeared first in 2008 dealing with a terrorist group known as the seven rings. The group was dead now, no traces of it since 2009. Part of the text was blacked out so he assumed it was shield-related business. He was a level 7 agent: there was much about S.H.I.E.L.D that was kept behind blacked-out texts, to his despair.

He searched on the document about Shield’s warehouse break-in. It only said “Iron man was caught breaking in warehouse 74, Boston, US. Nothing was taken”

“ _Nothing was taken._ Yeah, sure” He murmured, pinning this to the wall as well.

He kept his research until late at night. Shield’s laptop was by the floor with a few search bars open, there was _something_ wrong. Why Stark’s gala? What an awful place to conduct business. Sure, Stark Enterprise was famously known for their weapons, but he wouldn't steal from them during a gala, it made no sense. But what if Stark was the buyer? Reckless, but at least plausible.

He picked his phone, calling one of the few contacts he had saved.

“Rogers? What’s wrong? ” She sounded a little slower than usual, sleepy.

“Hey Natasha, sorry to call so late.” He pulled a grimace, noticing only now the hands of his wrist watch pointing at 4 am “I need Stark Enterprise’s bank records, can you get me that?”

She didn’t question him, which he appreciated “Sure, is it urgent? We can call a meeting tomorrow. Say 10 o’clock? I'll have it by then.”

“No, that’s perfect, actually.”

“Good, now go to sleep, Steve, you need it.”

He smiled softly, turning the phone off. Sleeping was hard, but maybe he could use the few hours before the sun rise.

Next morning Natasha was already waiting for him in the meeting’s room, sitting casually at the desk. She smiled at him "So, what do we have? Mysterious alien artifact? Break someone from a foreign jail? I love jailbreaks."

Steve snorted taking the seat in front of her "I wish, undercover mission."

"Undercover? You? No offense, but it's not exactly your forte"

"None taken, its true. I think they're expecting it to get messy. Is Sam coming?"

"Yeah, said he would meet us there. So, where are you going undercover?"

"Stark's gala. Apparently it's a coverup for a weapons trade"

“Oh, so I guess this is why you asked me for those” She said, sliding a pendrive over the table. He wished it was paper, but this would do.

“Yes, thank you. Sorry about the late call.”

“It’s fine, I slept early” It was very hard to catch Natasha on a lie, but it sounded enough like one.

“Sorry I’m late, I got you coffee” Sam said, closing the door behind him and dropping himself on the seat next to Natasha. On his hand he carried three pappercups, each carefully labeled with their names

“Thank you.” Steve said, reaching for his. It was a little too bitter for his liking, but it was coffee. “So, as I was telling Natasha, we got an undercover mission at Stark’s Gala.”

Sam frowned “We did? That’s a first, but I do look _great_ in a tuxedo”

“I’m sure you do, but you’re not going in unless I mess something up.”

He briefed them on what he had, which wasn’t much, but kept his suspicions to himself. Fury not having clearance about something was getting on his nerves, pulling some strings, but he gained nothing with sharing this with them.

Later, back in his apartment, he looked at the files Natasha had given him. There was a _lot_ to unpack, with extensive documentation on the last 20 years of the company. He didn’t think he had to look that far back, focusing on 2008 forward. God, he wished those were printed. Or that he had asked for help. He had no idea what he was looking for: how would he spot an irregulation if he didn’t know what the regulation was?

But his eyes stopped at a transaction. It wasn’t particularly big, not when this company dealt with six figures as most people did cents, but it wasn’t what caught his attention, it was the name it was being transferred to:

_Avengers._

He texted Natasha, this time aware of the late hours, asking for her to find a company called Avengers. Maybe this was something, the name popped against the rest. She answered him almost instantly with “got it”. Maybe texting and calling made no difference.

  
  


* * *

  
  


“Is this all? Doesn’t look very impressive”. The voice that came out of his mask was mechanical, dissonant from the voice he heard himself say inside the helmet. He was used to it, but it was always a little trippy. He examined one of the small orb on his hands. It was definitely his latest tech, he could tell. It could blow up this whole place if he pressed the right bottoms and that guy had a case with six of those. The US military still hadn’t got their hands on this.

“This thing has a thousand times the power of normal dynamite and none of the dirty mess” The seller answered. He was unremarkable, exactly the kind of guy who would sell you illegal weapons: white skin, black hair cut short, an unimpressed expression.

He was also wrong. This released 4 Giga Joules of energy, which was _4_ thousand times the power of normal dynamite. This made a huge difference, he hated when sellers got sloopy with his tech.

“Don’t correct him” said the voice in his earpiece.

He smiled underneath the mask. “I wasn’t going to,” he answered, trusting Jarvis to only transmit it back to Winter Soldier.

“You were thinking about it” The voice was muffled, nothing but a whisper, but it was good to hear it anyways.

The buyer in front of him was clearly going impatient, looking over his shoulders to his three bodyguards. “Are you going to buy them or not?”

“How do I know it works? What’s my guarantee?”

The men grimaced at him “Who the fuck you think you are? My boss doesn’t sell shit.”

“Well, I don’t know your supplier. Is this Hammer tech?”

All four men laughed “Of course not, Hammer is _shit_ , this is Stark’s tech. You asked for the best, and I’ve been told you can pay for it.”

Finally he said something that _wasn’t_ a lie. Hammer is shit, he could never build a bomb like that.

“I need more time” whispered Bucky “Stall them.”

“What's the price?” He asked settleting the orb down carefully

“1.5 Billions”

“I’m sorry?” Tony’s face was perplexed. His tech was great, but this was _absurd_.

The man scoffed at him “Does that helmet mess your hearing up? 1.5 or no deal.”

“1.5 and you will give me a way to contact you. You’re a very hard man to find and I might want to do business again.”

“If I want to sell to you again, I’ll find you.”

Tony smiled, adjusting his lapels, “I’m not easy to find myself. And your boss might have something to gain from a connection to me.”

“My boss will want nothing with a simple weapons trader.”

Tony was almost wounded. He had been carefully sharpening the reputation of The Iron Man as the best weapons trader around. Buying and selling the best merch to the worst people and keeping things as clean as they could. He was almost a myth around the underground market, no way to direct contact him, weird meet places, weirders schedules. He wasn’t a _simple weapons trader_.

Well, he wasn’t a weapons trader at all, of course, that was just a facade so he could destroy the supply-demand of illegal marketing, but still. It wasn’t easy to lie that well.

“Well” He said, swallowing down his pride “I don’t know anything about your boss, maybe we could both…”

“I’m starting to think Terry was right about this guy” said one of the bodyguards “He is all talk and no shit. Waste of our time.”

Tony was about to talk his way out of this, he had gotten out of far worse situations with just his tongue. But his train of thought was cut by Bucky, talking again in his ear.

“Shit. Shit.”

“What is it?”

The bodyguard who had spoken up touched his ear light. _Shit_ , Tony thought, understanding immediately.

“There are two more guards” said Bucky’s voice, before the sound got muffled by gunshots. The com went silent after that.

In front of him, the guard had his hand on his gun already “It’s an ambush, boss.”

“Shit” Tony said, not entirely sure if Jarvis had kept this in the private channel. It didn’t matter. He reached for his watch, pulling the mechanism that allowed for it to cover his hand. “I might need a backup here.”

The guard shot, but Tony was quicker, grabbing the case with the bombs before finding cover behind a pillar. The bullets ricochet against the stone and he thanked him for setting this meeting in an abandoned shopping mall. He turned to face them, his helmet showing where to aim as he raised his right hand, shooting at one of the bodyguards. His guard was down, they weren't expecting him to have a gun, but now he lost the element of surprise.

He took a deep breath, his heart beating loud on his chest. Bucky still hadn’t answered, the com silence muddling his thoughts louder than any other sound. He needed to get out of there before he could look for Bucky.

He turned to face them again, rolling on the floor towards the next pillar as he shot the second guard, but he was ready for it, dodging it. Tony shot again, no hesitation, no time to think, hitting his leg. Better than nothing, but it was still three against one.

“Get those bombs back” The seller shouted, and Tony had almost forgotten about the briefcase safely on his left hand. He had to get out of here, but Bucky…

He shot again, aiming this time on their boss. He dogged. “ _Shit”_ , those guys were good. Better than the kind of thug he was used to dealing with, but it shouldn’t come with a surprise: those bombs weren’t usual merchandise. He shot again, and dogged himself from a few bullets. He needed a better plan.

He took another breath before getting down and rolling back to his original spot, closer to them. His hands were already shooting before his helmet found aim, hitting the bodyguard whose leg was already hurt straight on the chest. Two down.

The shootings stopped for a second as he found haven behind the pillar again. He needed to make sure the boss didn’t run. The word that Iron Man was bad for business couldn’t get out. He needed a plan… He needed… he needed a good breath of air, the shooting thing did nothing for his anxiety. Ok, he needed to get the last bodyguard down and knock the dealer out. For that he needed closed a close range. He could do that, yeah.

He got around the pillar one last time, aiming straight to the body guard while moving forward fast. He hit him before he rolled around, avoiding the bullets. Three down. Cool. He felt a sharp pain on his leg and before he knew it his instincts kicked in, blasting the gun right out of the dealer's hand. He turned to look at his leg, glad to not see a lot of blood, his helmet registering as a bullet burn. Ok, he didn’t get _shot_ , exactly, he could…

There was a hand around his neck, strong and fast. Faster than he calculated. He fell back, the man on top of him, his hands keeping him in place. This was _not_ an ordinary dealer, Tony had dealt with dealers before, things had gotten ugly before, but never like this. The last time he saw a man this good at a fight was when he bursted in a Hydra facility and stole their biggest weapon.

Winter soldier… he should’ve… he would…

Thinking was getting hard as he tried to fight the thigh grip on his throat. His mask showed him his oxygen levels were low, his vision blurring around the edges… The man was saying something, probably counting his victory, but Tony couldn’t hear. This was too much like being underwater, it wasn’t drowning, but the not-breathing felt the same. The panel on his helmet flickered an alarm, but he couldn’t think, couldn’t see anything past the flashes and the darkening edges.

It felt too much like dying.

But then it was over. No weight holding him down, no hand stopping the breaths of air from coming in.

“Needed any help, ironman?”

Tony almost laughed in relief as he recognized Bucky’s voice, a hand holding his back, getting him on his feet.

“You’re late.” He managed to say, but his voice was barely a whisper.

His hands were shaking and his breaths were still too fast, but he wouldn’t die. He wouldn’t die. His eyesight was begging to clear, too. Bucky was in front of him in his Winter Soldier mask covering his face, gun on his hand and bodies around his feet. It was a terrifying picture, but it filled Tony with relief.

“Sorry, darling, you know how traffic goes.” He joked, but his arms were still around him, keeping him steady. “C’mon, let's go home.”

Tony followed him, letting his warmth calm his breathing down. It was a little pathetic, but he had seen Bucky in worse situations. When they got to the car, Bucky got behind the wheel. Tony never let him drive, but his hands were still shaking and his vision was still blurring, so maybe it was for the best. That and he was still breathing like he was running a marathon. It took him a while before he felt he could talk again.

“What happened back there?”

“I was ambushed. Three guards. They tried to knock me out, the comm broke and all that jazz.”

“They were Hydra.” The word tasted bitter on his mouth “No one else fights like this.”

“I know. Let’s just hope your memory bullets work, otherwise we might have to lay low again.”

Tony managed to chuckle a bit. His ammunition was a new experiment: sucrose shells with a memory drug. Inspired by the experiments Hydra itself was working on before he stole Winter Soldier from them. “Of course I’m sure they work, who do you think I am? Did you get what we needed?”

“Of course I did, who do _you_ think I am?” He pulled a little pendrive out of his pocket and Tony knew that behind that mask he was smiling.

“Good.”

They finished the drive in silence. As soon as they reached his garage Tony took off his helmet, letting it fold back in his trendmark sunglasses. Bucky took out his too and it was a relief to see his blue eyes and crooked smile. A little pathetic to fall in love with your only co-worker, but it wasn’t like mind-reader was one of his super powers, so it was fine.

“I’m making us some tea and we will watch that weird show you like so much, ok, doll?”

Tony lost focus for half a second over the nickname. “Star Trek isn’t weird, it's _old_ , you should relate.”

Bucky rolled his eyes at him, but his hand found his shoulder “Do you want to talk?”

“No. I’m fine.”

“Tony.”

“I’m fine, I had a small panic attack, it’s over, mostly. Star trek will help. What about you? I know meeting Hydra is…”

He left that sentence open, but Bucky understood. He opened and closed his metallic hand on a first a couple of times. He did that whenever his nerves were hurting him, and Tony did a mental note to check up on it later. “It was fine. Done worse. It was hard not being able to talk to you, only my mic broke, but the audio worked just fine. I could hear you shouting for help.”

Tony laid his hand at the back of his neck “Let’s get that tea, right?”

Star Trek did help. Well, that or watching a movie with his whole body pressed again Bucky. Either way Tony could breath again and the only pain on his chest was the overarching _pinning_ he always felt when next to him, like an overdramatic teenager. Bucky had fallen asleep next to him, head hanging behind, which was a sign he was _really_ tired: he actually loved Star Trek, despite his constant teasing.

“Hey, you should go to bed or you will complain all day about your neck.” Said Tony, poking his sides to wake him up.

Bucky smiled at his words, opening his eyes slowly. He turned his head so his mouth was almost touching Tony’s ear, the breathing alone making Tony hold back a moan “Or _we_ could go to that big bed of yours. You can complain about a whole other pain tomorrow.”

 _Oh_ , yeah, of course. Sex after missions wasn’t unusual to them: a way to blow off steam and adrenaline, of making sure they were still alive. Of course it was an awful idea: nothing says _I won’t get over you_ better than waking up naked by their side, but honestly Tony was never one for good ideas, especially if said good idea was turning down a super soldier trying to get in his pants. So instead he did what he wanted: closed the gap between them.

Bucky was still sleepy if the slow, sloppy kisses were any indication, but he still pulled Tony to his lap with ease and _honestly_ by now Tony should be used to how _hot_ it was to get manhandled. Bucky got up, still holding him up by his legs, and carried him to the bed.

* * *

“Steve, have you slept at all?” Asked Sam when he entered the meeting’s room, coffee on his hands.

He wondered how bad his face must’ve looked if this was how Sam was greeting him. “No. I will, eventually, but this doesn’t make _sense_.”

“Does it have to? It’s an undercover mission, just collect intel and get out, don’t engage and all that.”

“Steve doesn’t like doing things he doesn’t know why” Said Natasha, stretching her legs over the table “Which, let me say, is a shitty character trait if you want to work as an international spy.”

“Well, I technically didn’t want to work as a spy” corrected Steve “But my point is, Stark Enterprises have been redirecting money to this shell company called _Avengers_ since 2008.”

“Yeah, so? Companies do that kind of crime all the time. I’m all for eating the rich, but that's not really our job.” Said Sam

“Yeah, but listen. Iron Man started dealing weapons in 2008. Good weapons, best of the market. But we have _no_ idea who his supplier is. What if his supplier _is_ Stark enterprises?”

“So they would do their transactions via this _Avengers_ company?”

“Well, that was my theory, but money only goes _in_ this company, never out. I think Iron Man is getting paid to do _something_ for them. Maybe a super weapon? Maybe he pays them with service or… I don’t know. But I’m willing to bet this Gala is a big meeting for them, maybe the delivery of whatever the hell he's been working on?”

Natasha eyed him “I know that look. Steve, our mission is _just_ to collect intel. We _can’t_ stop whatever transaction they will be doing.”

“I know” he said, aware both of them could read through his lies “I just want to understand what I’m getting intel on.”

Natasha reached for the file he had brought. “Let’s say I believe you. Which I don’t, by the way, when did you say they started with that _avengers_ thing?”

“2008, why?”

She flickered through the pages “It's the same year Tony Stark was kidnapped, isn’t it?”

“Oh yeah, I remember this.” Joined Sam “Playboy gets taken by a terrorist group, gets away god knows how a few months after, was all over the news.”

“I didn’t know that.” Said Steve “From what I read Stark is just the face of the company, but who rules it is Obadiah Stane. I was aiming at him, he seemed like the kind to deal with Hydra.”

Natasha chuckled “Clind and I did a mission on Stark when he came back from the dead. Tony is a lot more than what most people give him credit for. I’ll give you what I have on him, maybe it's worth a look.”

“Thanks.”

“Now let’s discuss the _actual_ mission, you need some training if you’re going undercover alone. Sam and I will be your backup, but still. And you need to promise us you will sleep, you can’t go to the party looking like a grad student.”

Late that day, when he finally got home, he found himself staring at the documents Natasha got him. Apparently Tony was kidnaped while closing a deal in a war zone, kept captive for three months. The state wanted to declare him dead, but James Rhodes, a lieutenant colonel and personal friend, kept pushing. They found him, against all odds, alone in the middle of the desert after being able to escape. His captors were never found.

That was… weird. Scaping a known terrorist group wasn’t an easy task by itself, but he was found with no weapons and unharmed. He placed a picture of Tony to his wall: it was a paparazzi shot from before he was kidnaped, the smile plastic and egocentric on his face, adoring the attention. He looked a little too much like his father, the eyes of someone who knew he was the smartest in the room. Part of Steve rejected the idea Howard’s kid could be involved in any of this. A thread connected his face to Stark Enterprises, but nothing else. Maybe he didn’t connect to anything else.

He went back to reading. Stark was clearly more than the empty shell the media depicted him as, or at least Natasha and Clint seemed to think so. Their report was detailed on how Stark dealt with trauma, the hours on end locked inside his lab fixing and building god knows what. They had a few pictures of him working and that man looked nothing like the picture he had pinned on the wall: his shoulders were relaxed, eyes focused, teeth biting his lips softly as he opened the motor of sorts on his table. His lab was a mess of spare parts and lights.

A photo fell on his laps as he flickered to them. Stark was kneeling on sand, hand outstretched to the camera. On the back it read _Tony Stark being rescued after three months of captivity_. He turned to look at it again, but something caught his attention. Next to him, half buried in the sand, was something metal, shining against the dull of the sand. His heart failed on his chest as he texted Natasha a higher resolution of that photo to be sent to his computer. He needed to be sure, but he knew what he was looking at.

He was looking at Iron Man’s mask.

* * *

There was a phone ringing somewhere, Tony was almost sure. It had to be important, because otherwise Jarvis would answer for him. But he was warm and his legs were tangled with Bucky’s and it better be the goddamn end of the world if he was going to move out of this. It was so rare for Bucky to sleep over and waking up by his side was even better than the sex (again, pathetic, but what could he do?).

“Phone” Murmured Bucky against his hair

“It’s Clint Barton, Sir” said Jarvis

“Tell him i’m not home.” Murmured Tony, but he knew Jarvis would not lie for him this time: Barton never called unless it was an emergency.

“He asked me to tell you it was about Hydra.”

Bucky growled, untangling himself from Tony “It’s ok, I need a shower anyway.”

He wanted to whine, not wanting the warmth to leave, but Barton didn’t know the secret identity of the Supersoldier he helped burst out of a Hydra facility and he _certainly_ didn’t know he and Tony have a weird friends-with-benefits relationship.

“Pick up for me, Jarvis.” He said as Bucky closed the bathroom door behind him, sitting on his bed.

A screen appeared in front of him with the image of Clint Barton.

“Jesus, Stark, can’t bother to put a shirt?”

“Good morning to you too, sunshine. What’s up?”

“Someone requested the file on the mission I did on you a couple years ago.”

Tony sat more erect on the bed “What? Why would they?”

“I don’t know. I tried to ask a friend, but it’s hard not to be suspicious. But I’ve gathered they know Iron Man will move a move at the Gala”

“ _Shit_ , how? And how does Iron Man tie back to me?”

“I don’t know. Maybe they are investigating the company, since it's during your gala? Look, just be careful. Maybe you should retract, leave this for another time.”

“I can’t. I’ve been waiting for _years_ for this window, I need to know if… I need to know.”

Barton went silent for a few seconds “I get it, I really do, Stark. But sometimes we gotta pick our battles.”

“I’ve been doing that for four years. I need this.”

He ran a hand through his hair in frustration “Ok, ok I… I know who someone assigned that mission. A friend. I think she is clean, I don’t think she knows about Hydra. I’ll try to learn more.”

“Are you sure you can trust her?”

Clint laughed drily “Of course not, you think I’d be here if I knew who to trust? But she is… Look I’ve known her for ages, _hell_ , I helped her get recruited. I own her the benefit of the doubt.”

“Ok, yeah, be careful.”

“You too.”

“Thank you for your intel. Hey, since you’re here. Yesterday I dealt with a few guys who looked like Hydra to me, I have pictures of their faces, could you try to recognize them? I ran them through some databases but I found nothing.”

“Yeah, sure” He said uncomfortably “But be quick, I have about five minutes before anyone gets suspicious.”

Tony clicked on his screen, sending the closeups his helmet had recorded yesterday night.

“Shit.” Said Clint quickly “Yeah I recognize them. The leader is Ward, Grant Ward. Shit Stark, you’re way out of your depth here, he is one of the highest ranking officers. Though as hell. Fuck, I _knew_ he was Hydra, never trusted that son of a bitch.”

“Yeah, figure he was a big deal. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but be careful. Ward is a pretty big deal, one of our best undercover agents, it’s not a good sign you’re that much under their radar.”

“I’ll keep an eye open. See you, Barton”

Clint turned the call off and Tony stared for a few seconds, listening to the sound of water from the background. He wanted nothing more than to get in that shower, kiss Bucky under the warm water and be pushed against the cold bathroom walls. Instead, he opened the file Clint had sent him. He wasn’t high level enough to access most information on secretive weapon dealer Iron Man, but just enough to have everything Hydra knew about public figure Tony Stark.

He had checked those files before, over and over again, when Clint first emailed him when he first turned to his side. Clint had been lucky (too lucky) and caught him in the middle of testing the first failed attempt of his armour, blowing the walls of his lap up. They talked and Tony too was lucky that Clint was not aware Hydra ran Shield from the inside.

He was skimming through the pages, trying to find something he could have missed, when Bucky came out of his bathroom wearing nothing but a black towel around his waist. He stared shamelessly, because _well,_ Bucky didn’t (couldn’t) know he meant a lot more to him, but he could at least stare.

“Enjoying the view?”

“Looked better in my bed, but yes.”

Bucky laughed, looking over the floor for his shirt, only to give it one smell and pull a grimace. Without asking, he opened the door to Tony’s closet, disappearing behind it.

“You will ruin all my shirts with your huge shoulders” cried Tony

“Stop whining, you’re rich.”

When Bucky came out in low rise sweatpants and a shirt so tight it looked like it was about to rip. Tony forgot what he was trying to complain about.

“I’m thinking pancakes?”

“Yeah, and then we can go take a look at your arm.”

Bucky growled, but didn’t complain. “Go take a shower, I’ll be in the kitchen.”

* * *

Bucky did _not_ like the plan and he decided to make it everyone else’s problem. And by “everyone” he just meant Tony, of course, since no one else knew he was alive, let alone involved in this. Well, Dr. Banner knew, since he helped Tony work around his memory problem, but he was off in India keeping a low profile. Pepper Pots and Rhodey also knew, but Bucky knew better than to annoy that woman and Rhodey was not involved in this mission for his own safety, so Tony it was.

The party was just starting upstairs and he could hear the distinct clatter of heels walking around the stone floor up his head.

“You should call this off” said Bucky as he position some cameras around the premise, hiding them from sigh “You have time, enjoy the party, get drunk”

“I will, don’t worry” answered Tony on his earpiece. He was still back at his mansion, waiting to be fashionably late to arrive at his own gala “Enjoy the party, I mean, not call it off.”

“I mean it, Tony, this is risky. If you’re right and Obadiah is working with Hydra… Things will get ugly.”

“I know.”

“Are you sure you…”

“Yes. Shut up about it, ok? Everything will work out and after its done you and I will get drunk with the remaining champagne.”

Bucky didn’t answer and went back to adjusting the place to his needs. He and Tony had visited this place prior, it was actually chosen for its very large underground facilities. It was… probably a sex thing for rich man to rent and use the hidden floors, but honestly maybe an underground sex dungeon for rich people was better than a weapon’s transaction, so who was Bucky to judge.

Tony didn’t say anything else on his earpiece either, leaving them both alone with their thoughts. Well, mostly Bucky, Pepper was supposed to arrive at the mansion soon to be Tony’s plus one to the party. Which didn’t bug Bucky, really, it didn’t. He just wished it would be him. He liked her a lot and it was good to see Tony having real connections with people. Rhodey told him how bad it had been for Tony after being kidnaped and Bucky could relate. At least Tony had good friends that had his back.

Steve would’ve had his back. He would’ve _hated_ this whole plan too, he was always about action and this was too much mental games, too much bluffs and lies and learning to read the enemy. There was nothing _Captain America_ about hiding behind carefully placed shadows and waiting for the moment to strike.

But of course, there was nothing Captain America about this century. No Steve Rogers to burst his way with a shield.

Tony had his back too, of course, but that made it almost worse. It felt almost too much like replacement, like placing Iron Man where Captain America would be while placing Tony Stark at his Steve Rogers’ shaped hole. And it wasn’t fair with Tony, either, not when it was so _easy_ to fall for him, easy like nothing had been since… well, since Steve. He couldn’t even pretend it started as just sex, because it started at his lab, with Tony trying to help with, the softness mixed in sarcasm and stupid jokes.

The sex just complicated it. Because Tony deserved someone who was not broken in every way and not over his long dead ex.

Besides, it was just casual sex for Tony, no reason to put more thought into it.

 _God_ , how much longer was he supposed to be alone with his thoughts? He could’ve at least brought a book.

“I’m heading to the party” said Tony “Pepper said hi. Be ready, it shouldn’t take long”

Well, at least he would see Tony in a suit.

“Are you sure you’re ready? Do you remember your cover?”

Natasha was sitting in the limo Shield had rented in a red dress with her hair up, even though she wasn’t supposed to get inside the party unless something went wrong. Sam was the designed driver, but he was sitting on the back as they finished the preparations

Steve rolled his eyes, adjusting his mask over his face as Sam made sure its camera was functioning. It was a dark blue that matched his tie nicely with soft details in silver and wearing it made Steve feel weirdly reminiscent of his old Captain America uniform, before Shield changed it to the tradicional black clothes. The Nomad was way more discreet than Captain America ever could be.

“Of course I do. I’m Robert Holland, recently enriched by unknown ways - for the record I just betted on the right shares.”

“Remember, you just talk to people, walk around the ball, check for any unusual activity, maybe a secret door, if you find anything about the transaction you let it _happen_ , remember, we need data and Iron Man _can’t_ know we are onto him.”

Steve swallowed and agreed. He hadn’t told him what he found about Tony Stark. He couldn’t. Something was _very_ wrong about this whole mission, he didn’t want to involve them, especially if he was right about Fury having second intentions.

“I know. Wish me luck”

“You look too good to need luck” laughed Sam “Just don’t be stupid, ok, Steve?”

“I’m never stupid”

Sam and Natasha looked at each other before Sam jumped into the driver seat and drove them to the Gala.

The place was already full, and honestly, how many rich people could there be, really? Steve squirmed under the flashing lights of the paparazzi photographing him as he left his limo and walked the carpet to the entrance. Honestly he was a little happy for the mask: it was shield technology, any picture of his face would come out blurred, enough for him to not be recognized later, but not too much so it was suspicious.

He pulled on his cuffs before he walked in, trying to look around slowly so Sam and Natasha could have a good view of the place.

“Shit, Steve, Is it too late to change places?” Sam’s voice came over his ear piece

Steve held back his smile and walked towards the closest bar. He ordered a drink as he looked around, finding the cameras and where anyone could run to escape them. The obvious place was the balcony, the doors wide open despite the cold breeze of the night. Too obvious, but it was worth a try.

He thanked the bartender and tipped generously: It was Shield’s money anyway and that girl deserved it if she was going to deal with drunken old men.

His hunch was a good one, because he recognized one of the men outside, taking a slow drag of a cigarette, even if a black mask covered the left side of his face.

“That’s Obadiah.” whispered Natasha, confirming his suspicious “Be careful, he is _not_ to be underestimated. There are some rumors about him and terrorist gangs.”

Steve knew that, but it was a good reminder to hear it from Natasha: she wasn’t someone who feared a lot of people, if she was telling him to be careful, he should be.

He reached for a pack of cigarettes in his pockets. He didn’t smoke, but Sam had suggested it was good to keep a few on him if he needed an excuse to talk to someone or leave a situation. He was right.

“Excuse me, do you have fire?” He approached Obadiah with a nice smile, the cigarette on his hands

The man crooked his head to look at him for a second too long, his gaze making Steve deeply uncomfortable, before he nodded, looking for it in his pocket.

“Thank you. You know, I was sure I brought mine, those things are always disappearing.”

“I’ve had mine for ages. It’s very special to me.”

Steve took a look at the lighter he was being handled, a naked woman in an impossible position was carved in the metal, the fire coming from between her legs and it took everything he had not to pull a grimace. He lit his own cigarette, taking a drag before passing the weird lighter back.

“I can see it is. Where did you get it?”

Obadiah smiled, yellow teeths in contrast with the black of his mask. His smile was crooked and the whole picture gave him a cartoonish villain vibe, a less charming phantom of the Opera.

“It was handmade for me by a guy I know in Rome. A gift, he and I go way back. Knows what I like, if you know what I mean”

Steve nodded, taking another drag and remembering why he _didn’t_ smoke. Nicotine did nothing for him after the serum, so all there was left was the bitter taste of smoke.

“Hey, I’m sorry, aren’t you Obadiah Stane, from Stark enterprises?”

The man’s smile left his face and Steve was not sure if it was better or worse. “I am, why?”

“Sorry, didn’t mean to be rude. Robert Holland, I’ve heard great things about you.”

Obadiah finally turned to face him instead of just crooking his face, his eyes studying his “You’re the kid who got rich under all radars. I’ve heard things about you too.”

Steve grimmed “I hope all good.”

“You got rich fast, no one knew you before last month, then suddenly you’re asking for an invitation for the biggest Benefectory Gala in the world.”

“What can I say, I like giving back”

“So, how did you do it?”

Steve took another drag “Do what, get rich? Put some bets on the right shares, talk to the right people, you know, the usual.”

“Oh, where do you have shares?”

“Here and there. Heard Stark Company is a safe bet.”

“I’m doubting a man like you plays safe.” And the smile was back, dirty and crooked on the half covered face.

Steve laughed drily. “Well, you can’t go far if you stick by the rules. Besides, what’s the fun?”

Obadiah looked around, his eyes lingering on the frames of the women around the place, liking his lips. Steve felt the urge to punch him. “There’s a lot of fun for a man like you to have here. Why waste time with an old man?”

“Well, I’ve heard you're just the guy to talk to if you want things to get interesting. Have my card” Steve pulled a carefully crafted card from his pocket, a small tracker imbued in it. “If what I’ve heard about you is true, I have some clients who would _love_ to do some business with you.”

Obadiah looked at the card in front of him, but made no motion of grabbing it “And those clients can’t talk to me in person?”

Steve crooked his head, taking the last drag of his cigarette and throwing it over the railing. “They are.”

Obadiah eyed him again, but reached his hand. Instead of grabbing the card, however, he grabbed Steve’s wrist, pulling him closer. “Hail Hydra” He whispered in his ear.

The disgusting warmth on his ears wasn't enough to hold the coldness that ran through his spine. _Hail Hydra_? What? Hydra was dead, he killed it when he sank that plane in the ice almost 80 years ago. There was no…

“Steve” whispered Natasha into his ear piece, startling him just enough so he could repeat.

“Hail Hydra.” The words tasted bitter on his mouth, worse than the cigarette ash could ever be.

Obadiah, however, seemed satisfied, taking the card from his cold fingers and leaving to the inside of the party.

“What the fuck was that?” He whispered

“I don’t know” answered Natasha “A code of sorts.”

“Yeah, but _Hydra_? Hydra has been dead for years, I made sure of that.”

“Maybe it’s a small cult?” Suggested Sam “One of those new age white-supremacists, but spicy because they found out about an old secret organization.”

“Stane doesn’t strike me as the time to join small cults.” Said Steve, before downing what was left of his drink.

His mind was spinning back to his living room wall. This was a huge piece, he _knew it_ , the thing that could connect all those loose red threads. Except he didn’t know _yet_ how.

He didn’t have time to think, however, because suddenly everyone was moving towards the entrance in excimentment. He followed suit, behind the mob so he could see the general public still. Obadiah was by the door, shaking hands with someone whose face was covered by golden and red feathers.

When he turned his face, however, Steve recognized him on spot. Tony Stark, arriving late for his own party. His mask was extravagant, covering only his eyes, but with an adornment of feathers that popped him from the crowd. On his right hand there was a ginger woman he knew to be his assistant, Pepper Pots, in a discreet black mask and a radiant red dress that matched his mask and tie.

He held himself like he did in all the interviews Steve had watched prior to this. Comfortable, egocentric and charming all at the same time, as if this was his very own monologue at a play and everyone else was just the audience. It was too much like Howard, too. It filled him with rage, to see the man he knew to be one of the world’s biggest weapon dealer, both mainstream and underground, to be this acclaimed.

He turned his back and moved back towards the bar, asking the woman for another drink. He needed to focus. This was his mission, he gathered enough evidence on Obadiah alone that he could call it a night and Shield probably wouldn’t complain. But he needed to be sure about Stark, if he was right this could mean the end of his little empire.

“If you want to talk to Stark, get him drunk first. It’s very easy and he won’t shut up” suggested Natasha, as he watched the man around the ballroom.

“I don’t think he should engage anymore than he already has” responded Sam “Obadiah already has his eyes on us, that’s enough trouble for the night. Enjoy the place, keep eyes and ears open, talk to some less conspicuous people.”

“Sam has a point. There are smaller board members, maybe you can find out who Iron Man is dealing with in the first place. Or where.”

Steve ignored them, asking for another drink, not for the first time wishing it had more effect on him. He tipped the bartender again and traced a beeline straight to where Tony was, a small circle of people talking to him.

He calculated his trajectory to hit him in the back just strong enough so it was impossible to ignore. Tony let his glass tip from his hand, spilling the scotch over his own shoes.

“I’m so sorry.” Said Steve, flashing a smile “I’m stupid clumsy sometimes.”

Tony’s eyes locked on his and Steve was not expecting his eyes to be this delightful to look at, shaped by the red mask in an almost artisti picture. A smirk drew his way into his face and his eyes flickered from his chest before they were back to his face. “It’s fine, if I had your shoulders I would bump into people as well.”

Steve blushed, hating himself for it. He knew Tony’s fame to be a womanizer and knew the words were propositaly charming. “I… let me get you another drink. It’s the least I can do.”

Tony rose his eyebrows at him, before turning to the small entourage around him. “I’m afraid duty calls, fellas, but I’m sure any questions about the next Stark’s project can be answered by my lovely partner.” He winked at Ms. Potts by his side, who didn’t seem very impressed he was leaving her to those old men.

When they were out of ear range, Steve crooked his head “I didn’t mean to take you away from your partner.”

“Pepper? She won’t mind. Besides, I’m sure you’re going to be _much more interesting_ than whatever conversation I was to have there.”

“Well, doesn't seem like a high bar, I hope I'm not _that_ boring.”

Stark turned to look at him again. “I got the feeling you’re everything _but_ boring.”

Steve felt a rush of adrenaline on his blood, like his body knew Stark was trouble. He smiled instead and they reached the bar.

“Scotch with ice for me, and for you?”

“I thought I was the one who was going to get you a drink.” Steve answered, leaning sideways in the counter so his body was turned to him, a little in his personal space.

“Well, I paid for this whole thing, so technically I’m getting drinks for everyone here.”

“Martini, then, gin.”

Stark gestured to the bartender without a glance, but Steve noticed he tipped generously. “I didn’t catch your name. Have we met before?”

“No, I’m afraid we didn’t. I’m Robert, Robert Holland.”

“You’re that last minute invite everyone keeps talking about, then?” He crooked his head, the feathers bouncing gracefully “I gotta say, you don’t look like a Robert.”

Steve tensed for a fraction of a second. Stark’s eyes flashed in a weird light before they were back to funny and flirtatious. “I get that a lot, blame it on my parents, I guess.”

The bartender put the two cups in front of them leaving to attend to other customers, and Stark drank slowly before smiling again “We can blame a lot on our parents, can’t we?”

“Wasn’t Howard a good father?” He let slip before catching himself “I mean, I heard great things about him.”

Tony pulled a grimace, but didn’t seem to notice the slipup “I’m sure you did. Let’s leave the daddy issues for the press to speculate, I’m more interested in _you_ mister Robert Holland.”

Steve took his time to take a sip of his own drink, remembering what he knew about Stark. Get him drunk and flirty seemed to be both easy and effective if Natasha’s reports were anything to go by. _God_ , he wished his best experience with flirting hadn’t been with his long-dead ex boyfriend. Bucky would have laughed his ass off from seeing him there.

“Nothing much, I’m afraid, nothing that can compare with the _great Tony Stark_.”

Tony laughed “You’re lucky you’re cute, you're lousy at flirting.”

Steve blushed again. “I wasn’t… I mean… I don’t often do this.”

“Flirt? Yeah I can tell. It’s a little endearing, do people just usually fall for the whole _big arms soft smile_ thing?”

Steve caught himself laughing before he could hold it back “I guess. It’s.. it’s been a while since I tried.”

“Oh, I’m flattered.” He flashed a smile before taking a sip of his scotch “I hope you know I _am_ harder than that.”

“Are you?” He answered, lifting an eyebrow before he cursed himself internally, he shouldn’t _insult_ the guy he was trying to flirt with.

But Stark snorted, clearly amused by the remark “I see my reputation precedes me. Well, I _am harder_ than that, you will have to do more than flash me this charming smile.”

“So you think it's charming?”

“Oh please, wouldn’t be here if I didn’t. So, who _are_ you, Robert?”

He rolled the r’s in his name like he was tasting it in his mouth. Steve downed his cup and ordered another drink for both of them before answering.

“I’m a failed artist.”

He lifted an eyebrow “No one this rich is a _failed_ anything.”

Steve chuckled, his salary couldn’t pay for the suit he was wearing today. “I majored in arts, ‘wanted to draw for a living, but life went another way, I guess.”

“Well, never too late to go back.”

 _80 years too late, actually_ , is what Steve wanted to say, but instead he just snorted a half assed “yeah, I guess”. Stark’s eyes studied his face, a smile still on his lips as he brought the glass to his lips. It was his third glass on then, if Steve was keeping track correctly, but he barely looked tipsy.

“Are you sure we haven’t met?” He asked again “Maybe we did business once?”

“It’s impossible, I just moved here. All of my deals were online.”

“You just moved? But your accent is so _Brooklin_.”

The question was casual, but Steve felt his blood freeze, Tony’s eyes low as he sipped his drink. As he turned to face him again, he could see the shine of his eyes, the smirk on his lips. He _couldn’t_ _know,_ right? Were they playing the exact same game? Suddenly Stark felt much more dangerous.

“I was born there, moved a lot, you know how business goes. Word is you do business all around too.”

Tony smirked over his glass, finishing his drink, and Steve was _sure_ he knew. Someone must’ve tipped him off, told him about Shield keeping an eye on him. Was this why Furry had been so weird about his files?

“It’s just you have a very unforgettable face, _Robert_ , even with that mask of yours. Must be hard in your business… Failed artist, I mean.”

“So do you, even if I must say the feathers are a bit much. But I mean, it’s prettier than the other one.”

He could hear the moment Natasha and Sam understood it too.

“Tony fucking Stark is Iron man?” Natasha was incredulous

“Are you _crazy_ ? Get _out of there_. Don’t engage”

Stark, however, unaware of what was happening in his earpiece, smiled at him, dangerous and flirtatious at the same time as he offered him a hand “Care to dance?”

“Don’t engage. Get out of there _now_ ” Sam’s voice was loud and hard to ignore, but Steve had always been stubborn anyways, taking his hand without thinking twice.

“I’d love to.”

Tony led him to the center of the ballroom, hand slipping around his waist easily to lead him on the music. Steve’s heart was beating so uncopassed it was a miracle he managed to keep his feet in rhythm. This was not the type of battle he was used to fighting. This was dangerous and uncharted and it had been _ages_ since anything felt this exciting.

“So, I think you own me an answer” He managed to say, eyes locked in his “who are you, Tony Stark?”

“You know who I am.”

Steve crooked his head “Yes, but you still own me.”

He rolled his eyes. “A failed scientist, then.”

“Failed? You have the greatest empire of weapon design in the word.”

“Yes, I do indeed. Well, I guess that’s closer to my original goal that yours is. Are you really an artist?”

“Yes. Obviously don’t do much of that anymore.”

Tony snorted, a smile still on his lips as if this was still casual flirting, back and forth of knowing each other.

“I’m sure your art skills are very useful in your line of work.”

“Yes, I’m here to draw a great picture of your face in this mask.”

“Make sure to send that to me, I’ll have it hung in a noble spot at my mansion”

Steve laughed at that, letting Stark spin him before pulling him closer again, their hands clasping together. It hit him then he hadn’t danced like this since the forties, since Bucky was the one spinning him around small bedrooms and underground pubs. He pushed the thought back, this was nothing like with Bucky.

“What are you doing here, _Robert_?” He always pronounced every syllable of the name with mockery.

“Enjoying the free drinks and the good looking men.”

“Yes, I’m sure you’re here for my charming smile.” He said, seeming amused with the idea as they kept moving around the ball.

“I think you said I’m the one with the charming smile here.”

“Well, you already have the nice body, it’s unfair you keep _all_ the good traits.”

Steve eyed him up and down, the flirting was another layer to this uncharted battle and it came with an ease he hadn’t expected, especially with Tony Stark. “You think you _don’t_ have all the good traits?”

He spinned again, feelings the hands around his waist pulling him closer. He tried to keep an eye to his surroundings, making sure he wouldn’t miss anything, but it was getting harder, Stark making the dance more intoxicating.

“Why are you here?” Asked Stark, crooking his head so his lips were almost on his neck.

“Hard question, what do you think I’m here for?”

“Well, you _wanted_ to get me drunk and spill my secrets, which honestly wounded me a bit. I told you: I’m not that easy.”

“Aren’t you? I could be the distraction.”

“Hardly, you're not the only one who did your homework, _Nomad_. Not really a nickname they give to team-players, is it?”

Steve missed a step. How did he know his codename?

“Fuck” whispered Sam “Get _out,_ you’re compromised.”

He ignored it. “From what I hear you’re not the team player as well, it must be hard keeping all that business alone.”

Tony’s eyes gleamed before he crooked his head again, this time mouth almost touching Steve’s earlobe. “Well, as much as I think this conversation is lovely, you must forgive me, I have other meetings to attend to.”

Tony spinned him again, and it took him a second too late before he could process what he heard, but when he understood he was alone in the middle of the dance room, Tony already steps ahead of him, disappearing in the crowd.

“Nomad. Don’t go after him.” Natasha’s voice said, but he was already moving

“Don’t engage! Steve!” Sam was exasperated

“I can’t let him go now, we can bring him in.” He said, not bothering to look weird for talking to himself, trying to follow him as he moved through the drunk people

Tony waved at him lightly as he closed a backdoor behind him marked as Staff Only. He tried the handle a few times with no success. He couldn't kick the wall down with so many people looking.

“You’re not allowed in the back areas, sir” Said a security, moving towards him

Steve didn’t bother to answer, walking towards the balcony.

“ _Nomad_ , get back here right now or I’m going in” said Natasha

“Sorry.” he said, before putting his hands on the railing and jumping to the lower floors. There _had_ to be a backup door and he was going to find it.

* * *

“That was so stupid, Tony” said Bucky on his earpice as soon as he closed the steel door behind him.

Tony was still smiling as he took off his feathery mask. _God_ he liked this trill, which probably said too much about his mental state, but whatever.

“Yes, but I bought time to hack his earpiece and now can hear what he hears. Which is _pretty neat_.”

“You had to flirt to do that?”

Tony heart forgot how to work for a second “Is that jealousy I hear in your voice, Buckybear?”

He heard a small growl “You know what I mean, you gave of information to a Hydra agent”

“And learned a lot too” picked his inner pocket and pulled his sunglasses, turning them into the Iron Man mask over his face as he skipped the stairs. “He doesn’t know you work with me, which means Hydra doesn’t know I can cure their stupid mind control”

“Or it means he _lied,_ he is Hydra, Tony.”

“Yeah, well, if he lied at least he was cute. A lousy dancer, but cute.”

“Oh, glad you enjoyed the evil eye candy. Can we still proceed with the mission?”

“Yeah, of course, Obadiah should be here in any minute. Hydra is telling the Nomad guy to not engage, he will probably be out soon enough.”

Bucky growled again “I don’t like this”

“You don’t? Wow, would’ve never guessed, it's almost as if you said that about a hundred times.”

“Yeah, and that was _before_ we found out Hydra knew who you are, guess how i feel about it now.”

There was worry in his voice that softened Tony. Bucky might not have the same kind of feelings Tony _wanted_ him to have, but he cared about him. Besides, Tony was one of the few people who even knew he was alive, he understood what it was like to have your life in the hands of a couple of friends.

“Hey, I’ll be careful, I promise. It will be fine.”

* * *

It was _not_ fine, Bucky thought, as Tony warned him that the Nomad had, _apparently,_ broken into the lower levels of the building, if the angry partners on his communicator were any reliable source. Honestly, Bucky could relate to his co-workers, he knew what was like being dragged into a crazy mission by a reckless idiot. It was like him with Steve and it was like that right now with Tony. _Oh god_ , did he have a type?

The echo of conversation around the walls told him Tony was still dealing with Obadiah and he _hated_ leaving him alone with that creep, but at least they were still, you know, talking. He raised his gun, trying to keep his ears open to any steps, shadows moving around the corridors that lead to the room. He had to keep this quiet, Obadiah and his men couldn’t know anyone else but Ironman was in the premise.

Someone hit the back of his neck hard, harder than he was used to being hit, and he stumbled, turning and shooting blind at whoever was behind him, glad for the silencer on his weapon.

His shot missed, but Bucky froze before he noticed that. In front of him, dogging a bullet, was a face he would recognize anywhere, even behind a stupid blue mask.

“Steve?”

He got punched in the face this time, hard and merciless. This _couldn’t_ be Steve, not his Steve. His instincts kicker in and the next punch he could prevent, holding his fist on his hands and throwing him back.

The not-steve seemed confused, as if he was not used to people who could hold his punch. A supersoldier with his face, what were the odds he… Not-Steve threw another punch, this time he dogged and swung back, hitting him hard in the stomach. A normal man would’ve fell out of breath, but this man stood his ground. Definitely supersoldier.

“Steve? Can you hear me?”

He didn’t answer again. Maybe this was mind control, like he had been under. If so this could be… No. He had to focus, this was a fight. Tony’s life was on the line, he could deal with whoever this was after the negotiation.

He shot again, aiming for his legs, but the man was quicker, taking the gun out of his hands and throwing it away into the corridor. Bucky managed to swing a punch into the guy’s face.

"Steve, it's me, it's…"

Things got messier after this. For a fake-Steve the man definitely _fought_ like him, throwing his whole body into the fight as if he was still two feet shorter and 50 pounds ligter than the enemy. He tried to hold him back, but the second not-Steve managed to punch him in the floor he was sprinting towards where Tony and Obadiah were. _Shit_ , for a fake-Steve he for sure was stupid like him too.

“Tony, I couldn’t hold the guy, he is coming towards you” He said, getting up with a held back whine and sprinting behind him “But there's something, the guy he is…”

“Thanks for the heads-up, but I’ve figured that part out” He heard Tony say, being followed by the sounds of gun shorts. “Backup?”

He reached the hangar as fast as he could, already missing the gun forgotten in the corridor behind.

Tony was ducked behind the metal table, his glowing eyes acknowledging him as he moved behind Obadiah and his men. He could see the non-Steve punching one of Obadiah’s bodyguards, which, _hun_ , at least he was making himself useful. Maybe Obadiah _wasn’t_ working for Hydra, after all.

“I don’t know what the _fuck_ is happening, cover my back” said Obadiah and, _yeah_ , welcome to the club.

The old man was running towards the only exit, next to Bucky’s hiding place, and he was ready to take a swing when he saw him turn his back and shoot at not-Steve, who was done with the bodyguard and was sprinting towards Tony.

His body was moving towards Steve before his mind could register the sound. Steve was _shot_ and that was all that mattered for the fractions of the seconds before he reached him.

Tony was faster, hitting him with a blaster straight to the chest. Not-Steve dropped unconscious, blood oozing from his shot leg.

“What the fuck, Bucky? Obadiah escaped.”

Bucky didn’t register, cutting a strap of not-Steve’s suit to stop the blood. Tony lowered himself too, putting a hand on his shoulder. “You’re doing the honorable thing, but we _need_ to get out of here. He has backup.”

Bucky rose his masked face. He couldn’t see Tony’s eyes either, but he understood the glowing blue eyes just as well. “It’s Steve.”

“What? Who is Steve? _Your_ Steve? Captain Steve Rogers? Are you sure?”

“I’m… Yeah, I am”

Tony got up, taking a few steps back. “Shit.” He whispered, “Captain _fucking_ America, of course, yeah.” He paced around a few more seconds, enough for Bucky to finish to patch the gun wound. He needed someone to take the bullet out, but he would be ok.

“Can you carry him?” Asked Tony sundelly

“What?”

“Can you carry him?”

“Yeah, I think so.”

“Good. Do. We’re moving back to the mansion. I’ll tell Pepper. Let’s go.”

* * *

 _Great_ . That was all Tony needed, to kidnap a super soldier from Hydra and bring him to his house _again_. Especially if said super soldier was Bucky’s long-dead ex boyfriend. Yeah, no drama, this would be great.

He and Bucky agreed that tying him was the best choice and luckily his lab had a specialized medical area with a stretcher made to hold super soldiers, which he used when Bucky was still under mind control. He was still out from the blast, but experience told him it wouldn’t be long until he woke up angry and noticed his status: in nothing but his white shirt and black pants, no communicator, no gun and very much in handcuffs.

“What if they find us? Hydra.” asked Bucky as Tony paced around the lab. It was obvious both of them were avoiding looking at the unconscious man. “I mean, they know it's you, right?”

“Right, but they don’t know about the secret lab. Besides, if it comes to that we can lock down and leave through the emergency door.”

“I didn’t know we _had_ an emergency door.”

“Please, of course we do.” Tony took a deep breath “What are going to do about him? Is he… mind controled or a clone or…?”

“I don’t know. It fought like him. If he is a clone, he is a supersoldier one.”

“And we know Hydra’s experiments with supersoldiers were… volatile. You’re the only one who made it.”

“That we know of. I’ve been out for a year now.”

Tony crooked his head, conceding him the point “Ok, so, he wakes up and you talk to him and…”

“I… I can’t, Tony. I can’t.” Bucky took a deep breath and Tony had to stop himself from pulling him in a hug “I’m… too compromised. You know what he meant to me. What he still means. If he is Hydra…”

Tony's mind was a broken circuit, sparks all around as he tried to think “ _I’ll_ talk to him? Are you insane?”

“You seemed to be _talking_ to him just fine while you were dancing.”

Tony stopped on his tracks. _Oh shit_ , he hadn’t even considered that. “I’m… sorry for flirting with your ex.”

Bucky laughed at that, it was a little hollow, but it made Tony feel lighter anyways “It’s the least messy thing about this whole thing.”

Tony opened his mouth to say something, anything. _It will be alright; we will get out of this; I love you._ But Rogers moved on the bed and Bucky gave him an exasperated look “I’ll be outside.”

Tony nodded, watching Bucky leave to the outside part of his lab (the one that wasn’t dedicated to help mental-controlled supersoldiers) and close the door behind him. The walls were one-sided mirrors: Bucky could see what was happening inside, which was a little comforting.

Rogers opened his eyes slowly and Tony could pinpoint the second he regained consciousness. His face hardened as he pulled his wrists towards his body. The restraints held him, however, and his eyes searched the room until they locked on his.

“Were the fuck am I, Stark?”

Tony’s mind went blank for a second. “You know, Steve _does_ suit you better than Robert.”

“You think you’re cute?”

“Oh I know I am. But we’re going to focus on you now. Do you know your full name?”

“Fuck you.”

Tony rolled his eyes, pulling a chair he had near and sitting backwards on it. “You know, If you keep swearing I’ll assume you _aren’t_ the long dead Captain America. I’m pretty sure he didn’t swear.”

His eyes widened for a split second before he could return to his angry face. Tony noticed, of course, so the name meant something for him. Did he remember? Bucky couldn’t remember anything for the first weeks.

“Let me go.”

“Oh, since you asked so nicely.” Tony rolled his eyes “C’mon, you know my name, it's not a hard question.”

“Fuck. You.” He said again, moving his body trying to get rid of his cuffs, but this time he winced in pain.

 _Shit_ , they forgot about the gunshot. Tony got up without a second thought, opening his cabinets.

“What are you looking for?”

“The evil serum that makes you tell the truth” He answered sarcastically, before getting the first aid kit and showing it to him “You were shot, if you don’t get the bullet out it won’t heal properly.”

“Get away from me”

“Don’t look at me like that, I wasn’t the one who shot you.”

“You did shoot me, I remember that.”

“I blasted you, it’s different.” He said as he reached for the scissors

Steve struggled as he approached, whining from the pain “Get. Away.”

“Look, do you want the bullet out of your leg or not? If you heal around this it _will_ become an infection, even if you’re a supersoldier. Trust me.”

He lifted his hands, scissor still in his hand, looking him in the eye.

“How do you know? About the supersoldier thing.”

He chuckled “You aren’t the first stubborn supersoldier I had under my care.”

Steve went silent for a few seconds and Tony remained on his feet waiting. “The man I fought… He… works for you? I thought you worked alone.”

“It’s more of a partnership. Look, can I get this shit out of your leg or not?” He saw how Steve’s eyes flickered to him, hesitating “If I wanted to inject you with something I’d have done it while you were out.”

“Yeah. Whatever.”

“ _Thank you_ , was it that hard?” He cut through his pants where it was soaked with blood, looking at the mess; it was bad, but he had seen worse. “This will hurt,” he warned, before picking the pinches. Bruce would’ve killed him if he had been there, Tony was _definitely_ not a medic, but this would work. Steve tensed, holding back the growls. He took the bullet out, putting on the tray next to him.

“Do you want me to sulture you or just patch it up?”

Steve eyes him again. “Just patch up, I heal quick”.

Tony just nodded, working on his bandage with quick fingers. Steve’s healing factor was faster than Bucky, by the look of it: it already seemed less deep. Maybe he _was_ Captain America and his father’s work was better than Hydra’s (wasn’t that a nice thought?). Maybe he was just a newer model.

“Thanks.”

Steve seemed as surprised by saying it as Tony was by hearing it. He let a smile slip “You’re welcome. Feeling like telling me your name now?”

“How do you have a supersoldier?”

Tony laughed “You treat him nicely and make him blueberry pancakes.”

Steve rolled his eyes “Did you make him? I know your father was involved in the creation of the first serums.”

“So you’re saying you remember my father?”

“I’m saying I know how to read. Captain America’s story isn’t exactly Secret of the State. So, did you make him?”

“You’re sure full of questions for a man who can’t even tell me his name.”

“You’re the one who has me tied up.”

Tony lifted an eyebrow “Are you stalling so that your friends can find you? I thought you learned that I’m not that easy.”

“Aren't you? It’s been working.”

 _God_ , he hated how much he wanted to smile right now. He kinda wished he wasn’t Captain America just because wanting to punch a war hero’s stupid face wasn’t a good look. At least he knew that, whoever he was, he didn’t undergo the same process as Bucky. When he first broke him out of Hydra’s facility he couldn’t hold a conversation. Even if this was a new model of evil supersoldiers he probably wasn’t under extreme torture constantly to keep his mind at Hydra’s control.

“C’mon, I just need to know if you remember your name.”

“What do you mean _remember_?”

“Yeah, are all your memories in there? Are you a nicely made clone? Are you actually him and Captain America has now decided to turn evil?”

Steve lifted an eyebrow “Do you call all who oppose you evil? A little childish, don’t you think, Stark?”

“No, I hardly ever call people evil, but I do draw the line at nazi, though”

“What the _fuck_ are you talking about?”

“You know, I do think clone is a little too science fiction-y, but I will ask Jarvis to check on your dna to be safe. C’mon talk to me, help me help you.”

“You know, when I envisioned my night plans it didn’t end with me tied up by a lunatic.”

“Oh, so you just wanted to be tied up in general?” He lifted an eyebrow. Steve Rogers, assuming that was really him, _blushed_ in front of him, which was stupidly charming. “You _can’t_ be this easy to blush, _god_ , Bucky must’ve eaten you _alive_ back in the day.”

He realized his mistake a second too late, Steve’s face losing all the color he had. _Shit_ , he did really have a lousy mouth.

“How do you know that?”

Tony froze for half a second, half a second too long. He knew Steve had noticed, but he pulled a smile anyway “You said it yourself, Captain America’s stories are hardly secret of the State.”

“No. You said it like… How do you know?”

There was no trace of flirtatious tone or snark smiles on his face anymore. The look he gave Tony when he woke up pissed at being tied was nothing like compared to this.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Don’t lie to me, Stark. How do you know about Bucky?” He said struggling against his ties again

Tony was trying to think what to say, how to get him out of this, to calm this Steve down, when the door behind him opened. Steve went still, his torso risen as much as his tied body would allow it.

“He knows because I’ve told him.” Bucky said, closing the door behind him and taking a single step forward.

* * *

Steve brain shortcut. There were no ties, no Iron Man kidnapping him, no plan of escape, just Bucky standing still in front of him. Alive. Bucky. In 2020. Exactly like he remembered him in 1940. Well, his hair was longer, but still. Alive.

He had no idea how long they just stared at each other, how long it took for his brain to start working again. Because… This was wrong. This couldn’t be Bucky. Bucky was dead. And even if… Even if he wasn’t he wouldn’t be working with Iron Man, wouldn’t be standing while he was tied up in a mad scientist lab.

“Do you remember me?” The not-Bucky asked, and his voice sounded so much like the real Bucky Steve wanted to cry

“What the fuck does that mean?” He tried to keep his anger, but his voice failed. It sounded more like a plea than anything. Then his mouth betrayed him again, because he whispered before he could hold back “Of course I remember you.”

Not-Bucky took a step closer, but his eyes shifted to Stark. They seemed to have a silence conversation Steve couldn’t even begin to understand, like two partners who’ve been to way too many battlefields together.

“You can’t be real.” Steve whispered, breaking their conversation

Not-Bucky sighed, a small smile on his lips “I’ve been thinking the same thing since I saw you. How could you even be alive?”

“How could _you_? I saw you… I saw Bucky die. You can’t be him.”

Not-Bucky swallowed visibly “I survived the fall. Hydra found me and did some… experiments on me. It’s uh… It’s a really long story.”

He blinked, remembering the fight he had with Iron Man’s super soldier bodyguard. He couldn’t… He wasn’t…

“You’re the one I fought in the corridor.”

“ _Yeah_.”

“You’re a super soldier? So this is why you’re working with Stark? He’s got you a leash? Are you working for Hydra or...”

“ _We are_ working for Hydra? _You’re_ working for Hydra.” Shouted Stark, interrupting his line of thought

Steve shifted his head to look at him again “What are you talking about? I’m not working for Hydra.”

“Tony, one day your mouth will kill you” said Not-Bucky running his hands through his hair

“You don’t usually complain about my mouth when...” Stark hesitated before finishing “I talk us out of being killed by gun dealers.”

Not-Bucky held back a smile in a mannerism ridiculously familiar to Steve. He did this whenever he didn’t want to show Steve was being endearing. Calling him Not-Bucky was getting harder by the second.

“Tony isn’t working for Hydra, He saved me from them. He found the facility they were keeping me for years, decades even, and broke me out.” He put a hand on Stark’s shoulders, sharing a small smile before looking back at Steve

“So instead of Hydra you decided to… deal guns illegally?”

“I’ve been trying to dismantle the illegal market of guns since I was kidnapped. Figure the best way to do that would be from the inside. I’ve seen who my guns killed and I wanted to make sure no one else did” Stark’s voice was quieter now, as he spoke this, his body was leaning in Bucky’s hand “That’s when I found out about Hydra. You were everywhere, every big transaction on the market was dealt one way or another by you. I started studying you. By the way your security is not that hard to hack, for a super-villainous secret agency you should do better.”

“Stop saying _you_ , I told you, I’m not Hydra.”

“You’re Shield, same difference.” Stark shrugged, as if his statement was obvious on its own, not a ludicrous theory. Until today Steve was sure Hydra was good as dead. His confusion must’ve been obvious on his face “You really don’t know?”

“Maybe Barton was right” said Bucky “Maybe a bunch of them don’t know.”

“Don’t know what? Talk to me.”

“Shield and Hydra are the same agency, they just… use different masks to deal with different people. Tony has a friend inside who had no idea, said he thought he was doing good, you know? He believes it a secret even on higher levels, that only a selected part knows.”

Fury told him when he sent him on the mission our secrets have secrets, did he… Was he… His mind went to his research, the bunker Iron Man broke in but took nothing out. Classified. Was it Bucky whatever Stark stole? But that meant… All this time. “No. When I woke up I… They aren’t Hydra.”

“Getting their hands on Captain America was Hydra’s biggest dream for ages. I’m not the only supersoldier experiment, I’m just the only one that made it. Finding you must’ve been a jackpot for them, they would do anything to keep you.”

If that were true it meant all his work was in benefit of Hydra. All the files he stole, people he fought, tracks he covered. Sam and Nat they… They couldn’t. They weren’t.

“You’re wrong. Iron Man must’ve mind washed you or…” or you are not my Bucky, he wanted to say, but the thought was unbearable. To find him just for it to be a light trick, a play with mirrors to get in his mind. He couldn’t handle it. “He has to be Hydra. Obadiah said...”

“Obadiah said something to you?” interrupted Stark “What?”

“He said… He said Hail Hydra.”

Stark lowered his eyes. “Fuck. It’s true then. He is… fuck.” He got up from his chair. Bucky tried to reach for him but he pushed his hand away, talking a few steps back, pressing his eyes with his hands. “We’ve been… I’ve been after him for ages.”

“You want me to believe you’ve been after your own business partner?”

“Steve.” Warned Bucky, the same apprehensive tone he used to hear in the 40’s when he picked a fight he shouldn’t.

The room was silent for a few seconds, a tension Steve didn’t quite understand. He opened his mouth to say something (anything, really, was better than this awkward moment that fell between the three of them) when a british voice broke the silence for him.

“Sir, I’m sorry to interrupt, but it’s an emergency.”

Stark sighed, as if a disembodied voice coming to warn him about an emergency was usual. “Keep an eye on him” he said to Bucky as he walked outside the room, closing the door behind him.

“What was that?”

“Oh, Tony has an artificial intelligence that… is basically a lifesaver _and_ a butler.” The corners of his mouth lifted a bit, his eyes shifting to where Stark left before returning to Steve.

He was still a few steps away from where Steve was restrained, a safe distance between them, but Steve recognized this smile too, his I'm-trying-not-to-geek-out smile. _God_ , it was ridiculous how much he still recognized the little things, the small mannerisms.

“Are you really you?” He caught himself asking, the desperation clear on his voice

Bucky’s eyes softened, he took a step forward. “Yeah. Not, you know, the exact same as the last time you saw me. Hydra… they used me for years. But yeah, it’s me. Are you really you?”

“I…” he hesitated, licking his lips “Did you know Captain America’s life status is a level 7 secret at Shield?”

Bucky smiled at him and for a second he forgot he was tied up in a basement of a mad scientist “Oh, so you can’t tell me. Makes sense, you’ve always had such respect for authority.”

Steve laughed, turning his head to look at him better. Bucky took another step, no safe distance between them now. A breath got caught up in his throat. He lifted his hands as if to reach for him and _god_ Steve wanted him to touch him, to make sure he was _real_.

Stark opened the door and Bucky leaped backwards in an instant. Steve could breathe again, but he missed when he didn’t.

“We have to go. Hydra is coming.”

Buck nodded, and Steve recognized this look too, even if he wished he didn’t. This was war Bucky, seconds before a battle. He looked harder now, somehow, than he did in World War II. “Ok, what’s the plan?”

“I’ve already activated the security protocols, they will have a hard time getting in, but it’s only a matter of time. We need to evacuate, grab what we need and move to my safehouse. There’s a car waiting for us at our emergency exit.”

Bucky nodded “What about…”

Stark's eyes shifted to Steve. “We have two alternatives. We drug him, you carry him to the car and we beg his supersoldier health doesn’t wake him up before we get him tied up there…”

“Or?”

his eyes were still on Steve, as if he was in any way part of this conversation “Or we let him go. He knows what we know about Hydra and Shield. He can… come with us or whatever. Or go back to Hydra.” He took a breath, finally looking away from Steve to lock his eyes on Bucky “Your call”

“Tony…”

“No, I mean it, if you trust him not to be Hydra I’ll believe you.”

Bucky’s eyes flickered to Steve, who was frowning his face in search of sense “I… I can’t. Look, you know what I’d chose, even if I wasn’t sure. It’s your call, I trust you, too.”

Stark seemed as surprised as Steve felt. He never saw Bucky trusting anyone like this, well, anyone but Steve himself, the sureness in his eyes. Stark growled, massaging his temples before looking at Bucky again.

What was this? An elaborate plot? Was this not really Bucky, afterall, leaving him in the hands of a known weapon’s dealer? Were they just going to drug him again and this was in the hopes that he would still believe this was truly Bucky when he woke up tied to a new lab, no rescue coming the next time around?

“Let him go, Jarvis.” Stark said, cutting his line of thought short. He felt the bed shift under him, releasing his wrists and his legs automatically. “You can go, if you want. There's only one door out of the lab, then you just climb the stairs to the living room. Can’t miss it.”

Steve got up before he could think. What the _fuck_. This had to be another mind game, another power play on their part. He left the room in fast pacing, not daring to look at Bucky’s face as he left the small room to the lab outside.

His mind barely registered the lab as he stopped dead on his feet. _What was he doing_ ? Bucky was there, in the room he left, breathing and alive and _just there_. He spined on his heels, this time stupid aware of every step he took back into that room, where Bucky and Stark were still discussing something, a few feet apart. He ignored the exclamations of surprises, focusing on Bucky in front of him.

He reached for his shirt and pulled him into a kiss before he could talk himself out of it.

Their faces were in the wrong angle, Steve had pulled with too much strength and Bucky crashed in his lips, teeths clashing and lips bruising. But this. _God_. He missed this like a limb. This had to be Bucky, the way he melted around his kiss, pulling him closer by the waist as he used to 80 years ago when Steve could still be lifted by a single hand. This had to be Bucky, as they arranged themselves almost automatically, fitting their mouths so it wasn’t so messy. His lips felt the most familiar thing since he woke up in this century.

“God, I’ve missed you.” He said against his lips, pressing their foreheads against each other. At some point he must’ve started crying, because he could feel the tears around his eyes, but he didn’t want to move to dry them.

“I’ve missed you too, Punk.”

He chucked, crooking his head to capture his lips again.

“I hate to interrupt this _very_ adorable moment” Stark’s voice, a sarcasm he couldn’t pinpoint _why_ dripping in it “But we gotta move”

* * *

This wasn’t awkward, Tony told himself, this was _fine_. Seeing Bucky kissing Steve didn’t make him want to scream. He was fine. Well, not fine, because Hydra knew who he was and was at his doorstep, but, you know, fine.

Bucky jumped out of Steve’s hands and had at least the decency to look embarrassed. Not that he needed, of course, they were just friends with benefits, no exclusivity required.

“Tony…”

“Grab your things, we gotta leave.”

He didn’t wait for an answer, turning his back on the couple and leaving to his lab. He needed his suit, maybe a couple pieces he didn’t have a backup to. This would be a lot easier if his suit was complete, maybe he should’ve focused on _that_ instead of trying to tear down a secret, powerful, evil organization. Hindsight is 20-20.

“Jarvis, put the suit in travel mode, will you?”

“Of course, sir.”

He heard Bucky reaching for his guns, packing a luggage with some experimental bullets Tony was trying his hand on, but he didn’t look at him. Instead he moved to the back of his lab, pulling a carefully-stored package his father had left him. He always wondered what use this was to him, even considered melting it down to use the material, but he never did. Tony turned towards Steve, who was leaning against a wall staring at Bucky like a lost puppy.

“Here. I think you might want it.”

Tony opened the case, ignoring the frowning face in front of him, and took the shield out. It was exactly as the first time Tony saw it, at the age of 5 in his father’s lab, as if he was polishing it frequently instead of leaving it to pick up dust at the back of his lab.

Steve’s face was worth every year he kept it intact.

“How do you have this?” He whispered, picking it up slowly in his two hands

“Howard kept it. I think he hoped you would show up one day and… Well I guess you did.”

He smiled at him, putting his left arm inside the handle. Tony forgot how to breath for a second: he looked too much like the comics he used to read as a kid, the great Captain America, punching nazis and looking good while doing so. The shield suited him like Steve was made for it, and not the other way around.

Steve seemed to feel it too, pondering the weight on his arm. When he spoke, his voice was more firm, like Bucky’s before a mission “Who is out there?”

“Jarvis just reads two, I’m guessing the two that you had in your comm. But they probably have back up on their way.”

Steve nodded “Sam and Natasha. Let me talk to them.”

“Talk to them? Are you insane, Steve? They are Hydra.”

“So am I, apparently. Look, you said you had a friend inside who didn’t know, I’m not the only one who was in the dark about this.”

“You have to be kidding” said Bucky from the other side of the room “Steve they…”

“You said Natasha?” interrupted Tony, watching Steve nod “She is the one who spied on me. My contact thinks she is clean too.”

“Tony, you can’t be possibly considering this.” Bucky walked towards them “I know Hydra protocol, even if she _is_ clean she called for backup and probably reported the whole thing to her superiors. We gotta _go_.”

“But she can be an asset. Hiding is a temporary plan, we would need a plan b.”

“Besides, if I’m right, that’s four high ranking agents on our side. We can do more work inside and cover more tracks.”

This wasn’t a bad plan, maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to have Steve Rogers on his team.

Bucky rolled his eyes, a pistol still on his hands “You’re both insane.”

“That means he is in.” translated Steve

Tony sundelly hated him all over again “I know what he means.” He said, a little more aggressively than intended “Look, go outside, try to convince them to meet us in the living room. Bucky and I can be your backup and if things go south he can shoot them down.”

“The bullets are tranquilizers.”

Steve nodded “sounds like a plan. Lets go?”

Tony nodded, but he saw Bucky reach his human hand to hold Steve’s arm “Do you really trust them?”

He hesitated for a moment, but when he spoke he sounded sure “Yes. Wouldn’t risk this if I didn’t.”

“Ok. Tony, stay in the lab until I give you a signal.”

“What, why?”

“I can’t keep an eye on both of you, if Steve is wrong…”

“I can protect myself just fine!”

“I know you can, I just... no stupid risks, please.” Bucky’s voice was low, and if Tony wanted to he could read the underlines of what he was asking, he grew used to doing so.

But his blood was still hot on his veins, so instead he rolled his eyes and said “I’ll come with you, then. If things go south it's better to have me.”

Bucky stared at him and Tony lifted an eyebrow. “Ok. Sure. Today is the day of stupid plans.”

“This night’s plan would’ve been fine if _mister America_ here hadn’t come bursting in”

“Ok, can you two have this discussion later? If you’re right and they requested backup we don’t have long”

He hated to admit he had a point. Yeah. Sure. “You might want this.” He turned towards his main desk, searching for an extra communicator “So we can talk to you.”

Rogers nodded, putting it on. Tony guided them out of this lab, letting Steve take the front as they left through the back door and ducked behind a few bushes. Tony put his eyeglasses on, turning them into the mask to trace a heat-map of the area. He whispered Steve the direction, watching him move towards them, shield in hands.

“Tony…” Started Bucky by his side. The Winter Soldier mask was scarry, but not even it could hide the soft, almost _pieting_ tone in his voice.

“No.” He said, making sure to disconnect his voice from Roger’s comm

“What do you mean _no_?”

“I mean _no_ , we’re not having a conversation about this.” He turned his mask towards where Steve was. He had met them already, three heat marks on his vision standing relatively close. This was a good sign.

“But you’re clearly mad about it.”

“I’m not mad… Listen, it’s fine, we’re just friends, right? I’m happy you found your lost lost soulmate or whatever.”

“Oh yeah, that’s how you sound when you’re happy.”

Tony growled, turning to look at him again “What the _fuck_ do you want me to say?”

“I don’t know, what do _you_ want to say?”

 _I love you_ and _I’ve always known you didn’t love me back, but knowing I lost whatever chance I could have with you hurts like a bitch_ were the least shitty ones on his mind right now. He also wanted to curse Captain America back to whatever hell he crawled off, with his stupid charming smile and witty comebacks like he was written for a romance novel. How the _fuck_ can you compeat with that?

But instead he shrugged, turning to look at the blurred colors of Steve “Nothing, I’m fine.”

“Tony.”

“Ok, fine, we will talk, just… lets us handle this first, ok?”

Bucky seemed satisfied, because he stopped talking. Steve’s voice on his communicator was calm, controlled, which was good: he really didn’t want a fight right now.

“Thank you. For trusting me.” Bucky blurred a few moments later.

Tony turned to look at him. Both were wearing masks, but he smiled anyways, soft and sincere even if he felt like crying. “You don’t need to thank me for this. Of course I trust you.”

They returned to silence, a little more comfortable this time around. Steve continued his talk, clearly taking his time to convince them to get inside. Honestly, it was getting on Tony’s nerves a little bit: the night was cold and he left wearing nothing but his dress shirt and pants. How hard it could be to get those two to just _get inside_.

“Here, you’re shaking.” Bucky said, taking his hoodie off revealing his long sleeve shirt. Oh _yeah_ , that’s exactly what Tony needed: to wear his oversized hoodie. This would help with the stupid pinning, clearly. Bucky must’ve noticed his hesitation, because he rolled his eyes “I don’t get cold, c’mon.”

Tony picked it, because he was never known for his good decisions, and put it on. It _did_ help, the warmth already making him feel better, but he could also smell him and _god_ , he was pathetic. “If you don’t get cold why do you hog the blankets so much?”

Bucky laughed, it was a delightful sight even if his face was covered by the Winter Soldier mask. “It’s not my fault all your sheets are stupid soft.”

Tony smiled bittersweetly, but there was no time to dwell on the fact that he would no longer wake up cold because a stupid super soldiers burrito-ed himself on his bed: Steve had convinced them to get inside.

“Thank _fuck.”_ He whispered, getting up and returning to the house, Bucky on his heels.

* * *

So. Steve was alive, Tony was angry with him (not jealous, Bucky repeated to himself) and they were on their way to meet two Hydra agents in the hopes of turning them on the good side. Bucky really wanted this night to end. And on top of all that both Tony and Steve were wearing stupid well fitting dress shirts and it was getting on his nerves. Well, Tony was now with his hoodie, but that wasn’t great for him either.

He followed Tony as they entered the house by the kitchen door. He could hear Steve’s nervous remarks about _please have some patience_ even without the communicator and as they entered the living room. Steve was in front of a white, red-haired woman and a black man, both armed (the men carried a weird, bulky backpack on his shoulders). They were all standing in the huge space, even with the sofas behind them, rendering the front door useless if they wanted to escape fast.

“Stark.” the woman said “Good to see you again.”

Tony reached for his mask, turning it back into his usual sunglasses. “We have to stop meeting like this. And by this I mean you spying on me.”

She shrugged casually, but there was something about her posture that made Bucky sure she was dangerous. “It’s all in a day’s work. Who is your friend over there?”

Tony looked at him, as if expecting him to answer. God, he hated introductions, and honestly taking off the mask in front of strangers felt too close like stripping naked. But he did it anyway, letting it rest on the center table and looking back at the two agents.

“ _Oh_. I understand why this complicates things for you, Steve.” She said, her eyes widening.

“Are we supposed to know who this guy is?” asked the men, crooking his head.

By his side, Tony held back a laugh.

“James Barnes.” The woman answered before he could “Served with Steve in world war two.”

“Whait, as in _Sergeant Barnes_? Captain America’s best friend?” The man lifted an eyebrow “You should be dead.”

“So I’ve been told. And you are?”

“Sergeant Sam Wilson. Well, formerly, of course.”

He nodded. There was a time meeting someone who also served would make him feel more connected, but this was ages ago. Especially if this guy had decided to leave the army to go work for Hydra.

“And _that_ is Natasha Romanoff.” Said Tony

“You’re Russian?”

“Maybe, why?”

He shrugged, but there was something unnerving about that woman. All his instincts shouted _danger_ the more she looked at him, and not in the _she is a Hydra Agent_ kind. There was something familiar about her too. Maybe they met before while he was still under mind control? His memory of that time was hazy at best. _God_ he really wished they hadn’t followed this stupid plan, they could be miles away by now.

“So, Steve, you got us to meet with your captor, what’s next?” asked Sam

“I’m not his _captor_ ” Said Tony

“Well, you technically did kidnap me” Said Steve, a small smile on his lips Bucky could catch from a mile away. Tony opened his mouth, but he continued “But it’s not the point. Stark and Bucky _aren’t_ weapon’s dealers. They’ve been trying to stop the underground market for years and they found… Things that fit the picture I was trying to see ever since Fury assigned me this mission.”

He stopped talking, as if he was looking for the words to explain without sounding like a lunatic.

“What things?” Askes Sam

“You should sit” Said Steve, gesturing to the sofa behind them as if this was his living room for years. Bucky caught the glimpse of Natasha’s eyes looking at the exit door.

Tony rolled his eyes as no one moved, impatience clear on his face “Hydra is still active and has been conducting most underground business. Also Hydra and Shield are the same thing.”

Sam sat down. “Dude, you can’t possibly believe this.”

Steve sat in front of him, elbows on his knees as he leaned forward. “Look, I know it sounds insane, but… When Fury gave me this assignment he told me Shield had been keeping an eye on Iron Man ever since he broke in one of our facilities. The official report says nothing was stolen, but that’s not what he told me, he said whatever was stolen was classified, _above his level_.”

“That’s insane, no one is above Fury but the Director.” Said Sam “What could possibly be that important that _Fury_ wouldn’t know about?”

“Me.” Intervened Bucky, crossing his arms “Hydra kept me frozen for _years_ , waking me up when they needed a job done.”

Sam eyed him up and down “I guess you’re cute, if you like the whole aesthetic, but why else would you be a resource so important to Hydra?”

“He is a supersoldier,” Answered Steve “I fought him myself, no one else would be able to hold my punches like that.”

“Ok, so what?” He answered sascastically “You were a mind-controlled, super-soldier, murder-weapon for Hydra and was kept in this facility until playboy pretty boy over there saved your ass?”

“Well, that summons it nicely” Said Tony, sitting by Steve’s side “I heard from intel that Hydra was keeping a powerful weapon and I wanted it _out_ , planned to destroy it on sight, maybe bring it to my lab to analyze. But instead I found him frozen and unable to remember his name.”

“So you brought him home like a lost puppy?”

Bucky opened his mouth, he was _not_ some puppy Tony had picked up, but Tony was faster, flashing a smile and saying “basically, yes.”

Sam signed, turning back to look at Steve “Buddy, I know why you would believe anything that pretty mouth says. Sexy villains are cool and all, especially if their sidekick is allegedly your old best friend, but c’mon, listen to reason.”

“I _am_ listening to reason. This case made absolutely no sense until this. C’mon, why else would Fury send me into an undercover mission? _Me_.”

“You think Fury sent you here to what? Discover a decades old conspiracy about a secret agency inside a secret agency? Have you been watching those conspiracy videos on youtube? Are you telling me the earth is flat next? Nat, can you believe this guy?”

Bucky rolled his eyes, honestly they could be at the warehouse by them, maybe he could be getting ready for bed. This was useless, even if this guy was _that_ clueless about Hydra he wasn’t going to believe it. They would have to fight. He looked at the woman, Romanoff. She was the only one besides him still standing and she was looking at him back. She had her legs on a fight stance ever so casually, feet position apart. A good stance, discreet, but eerie familiar. She was ready for a fight too. He tensed, ready for her to attack.

“зимний солдат” she said instead, eyes still locked on him, and he froze. _Winter Soldier_.

He hadn’t heard that since he was Hydra, not since Karpov suppressed his memory again and again and again. Suddenly he knew why he recognized her stance. He met a lot of her kind before, agents trained in the Red Room. He killed a lot of them too.

He hissed, taking a step to be between Tony and her _._

“What is this?” asked Steve, getting up

“Steve, I don’t care who you think he is, this he is one of the world’s deadliest assassins.” She said, bite on her voice.

He laughed bitterly “You’re one to talk, черная вдова.” _Black Widow_.

“How do you know that?”

“Oh _please_ , I fought enough of your sisters to recognize the training.”

“What the _fuck_ is this about?”

“She is a KGB agent, trained from birth to be the deadliest weapon in any arsenal. A perfect choice for a Hydra agent, if I say so myself.”

“Is this _true_?” Steve asked, turning to her.

Romanoff had the decency of looking guilty. “I left. Clint’s job was to take me down, but instead he talked me into joining Shield to do some good. I’m _not_ an assassin. Not anymore”

“Neither am I.”

She flicked her eyes at Tony behind him, relaxing her shoulders ever so slightly. Bucky followed suit.

“Clint is your intell, isn’t he?” She asked

“I don’t know, is he?” Answered Tony, leaning back on the couch.

Bucky knew it was just an act, this relaxed, overly confident Tony, but damn was it a good one. Even in an oversized hoodie he seemed professional.

“It’s the only thing that made sense. You _knew_ we were coming to your party, but this mission was top secret, not even Sam and I could read the whole file. Then I remembered Clint asked about it.”

“Let’s say it _is_ this Clint, for the sake of this argument” He leaned forwards, legs spread in front of him. _God_ this was distracting. “What do you want with this information?”

“Call him.”

“Then what?”

She smiled, devious and dangerously. If Bucky wasn’t ready to jump her down he would’ve liked her. “Then I’ll believe you, Stark.”

Tony flicked his eyes for Bucky and he understood the question behind them. He nodded slightly, because honestly they were already here, might as well finish this.

“Jarvis, call Barton for me, will you? Project the call over that wall.”

“Of course sir.” Jarvis answered back, and a blue screen lit the left wall.

The writings _calling Legolas_ were the only things they could see for a few seconds. Steve had sat down next to Tony again and Bucky avoided looking at him. If Tony, whom he saw everyday in stupid pijamas and bed hair, was distracting, Steve was a dangling sweet in front of a starved child. He looked at Romanoff instead, still untrusting of her.

Clint’s face showed on the screen, Bucky recognized him from the times he hid behind the camera as Tony talked business.

“This better be important, Stark, I was in the middle of… ‘Tasha?”

“Hi asshole, when were you going to tell me you were working with Iron Man?”

He blushed, looking behind nervously before looking at the camera again. “Look. I was going to tell you, I just… Wait, what is happening here?”

“I kidnaped Captain America.” Said Tony with a charming smile “But it’s fine, turns out he had no idea you guys work for Hydra and he is now trying to not get us killed by his team.”

“I regret ever deciding to work with you, Stark.” Clint murmured, and honestly Bucky could relate to that.

“So it’s true?” Sam asked, running his hands through his face “Shield _is_ Hydra?”

“I… Yes.”

“And you didn’t tell me why, exactly?” Romanoff asked

“I… I wanted to, but Tony thought I shouldn’t and he was right. It’s dangerous enough for me to know about it.”

Natasha nodded. She was a hard woman to read, but Bucky could guess she wanted to do a lot more than that, maybe shout or punch him. But she didn’t, she just took a breath and sat down next to Sam. “C’mon then Stark, tell your story.”

“I got kidnapped five years ago by a terrorist organization that wanted me to build a weapon. They had all those Stark tech, they were buying them somehow. Which made no sense, I _knew_ we only sold to some certified countries. When I escaped I wanted to figure out how they got their hands on my merch, but it wasn’t _enough_ , if not mine, they would buy someone else's, I needed to take them down. So I spent years building a reputation as a weapon’s dealer and trying to track illegal sales. That’s when I found out about Hydra.

‘Every single big deal, every large translation, had Hydra’s fingerprints all over it, once I knew how to look. When you and Clint came to spy on me I thought you had found me snooping, I panicked and Clint overheard me talking to Pepper. We’ve been working together ever since, trying to figure out how to dismantle that shit. But it's… it's big. And Clint is sure half of the people there are inocente, which makes it even harder, honestly. We decided our best call was to destroy some of their biggest assets, hence mr. Grumpy over there.” Bucky lifted an eyebrow “Hydra had him for _decades_ , the deadliest weapon in the world, mind controlled and kept in a coma so he could never do any damage to Hydra. I brought him home, of course, never could resist a project. We’ve been working together for over a year.”

“Ok.” Said Natasha, crossing her arms and leaning on the sofa

“Ok? That’s it?”

“Yeah” she shrugged “I believe you. Clint and Steve seem to, anyways. To be honest you always stood out to me, I spied on a lot of rich dudes, all they are is entitled and arrogant. You’re all that, of course, but there was _something_ about you. That’s why I kept tabs on you via Pepper. When it became clear she knew I wasn’t just being nice I realized I _was_ into something. But honestly I just figure you were building something weird in your secret lab.”

Bucky snorted, a smile on his lips before he could hold back. Tony _always_ had something weird in his secret lab, especially since he was still trying to perfect that suit.

“Ok, so, we’ve been working for an evil organization, made by _nazis_. Cool, cool, cool, I hate it” Said Sam, pulling a grimace “So, what’s the plan, Nomad?”

“I think we need to run what we have. It might sound crazy, but… I think Fury is an Ally?”

“Fury? Second-in-command? Steve, that man has to know everything. He fooled all of us.”

“He _sent me_ on this mission for a reason. He could’ve sent Ward if he wanted a level 8 agent. He is _good_ at undercover stuff.”

“Grant Ward? Yeah he is good because he is Hydra” Said Clint over the call

“Wait, what?”

“Yeah, Stark had a run with Ward trying to sell him some weapons”

Natasha crooked her head “I’m actually not surprised, never bought that _nice boy_ act.”

“We should run what we have, figure out where to go from there.” Said Tony, running a hand through his hair.

Steve turned his body to face Tony, telling him about his research as the other man opened a screen in front of him to take notes. Tony’s attention was all on Steve, complementing his takes with his own information swiftly.

Bucky got up, despite the interest clear on Tony’s face he recognized the undertones of _tiredness_. It was hard to notice, the man was too used to skipping nights of sleep, but Bucky knew how to pick it up by now. He needed either 12 hours of sleep or half a gallon of black coffee and sadly he couldn’t force him to go to bed now.

“This will take a while, I’ll make coffee.”

* * *

Steve’s eyes followed Bucky as he left the living room. He had tried really hard to keep his eyes off him and focus on the conversation they were having, but Bucky was _right there_ , alive and honestly looking great with the longer hair. He did notice Bucky seemed to look at anywhere _but_ him, his posture making it more than clear he was ready for an attack at any minute. It was weird, Bucky had always been the least trusting of the duo, but he was never _paranoid_ before (but then again Steve wasn’t a spy when they last saw each other, keeping secrets and working under the covers).

He focused back, looking again at Stark as he typed some things on the screen in front of him. He didn’t seem like the same man he met at the Gala, with Bucky’s hoodie on. Hell, he didn’t even seem like the same man he was talking 10 minutes ago. The posture was gone, the _I’m better than you_ smile had vanished and on its place there was a soft frown, the gears clearly working on his mind.

Bucky came back a few minutes later, a tray with a thermos on his hand and a mug on the other. He handed the mug to Tony silently.

“Thanks, Buckybear” Said Tony automatically, not looking away from the screen.

Steve froze, his eyes moving to Bucky, who was moving to get more mugs, head down. But he could see his neck had tensed, redness creeping on his face. _What_ ? Had Stark just… That made the whole hoodie… _Buckybear_?

“Rogers? Are you listening?”

“What? Yeah, sorry, I was just wondering...” Quick thinking Steve, this was _not_ the time to be focusing on whatever that was. “What are the _Avengers_?”

Bucky’s soft laugh came from behind him as he handed a mug to Steve as well. The gesture caught him off guard, but as he took a sip the coffee was stupid sweet, as he used to drink back in the forties.

“It’s Tony’s hero complex in action.” He answered, a found smile on his lips

Stark seemed flustered for the first time since they met “Ok, you found that. It’s not a hero’s… It’s... I just thought maybe to handle an extraordinary problem like Hydra we needed an extraordinary plan. So…”

“Tony wants a superhero team.”

“Shut up, Santa Clause, it’s not a superhero team. It’s just… Hydra does a lot of shit, but it also keeps a lot of threats at bay, so if we are going to destroy it we _need_ something to put on its place, something better that can protect people.”

“It sounds like a superhero program.” entervined Sam “It even has a cool superhero name.”

“It’s _not_ a superhero name.”

“Ok, so it’s not a superhero thing. Who have you recruited so far?” asked Natasha, pulling her legs under her body.

Stark pulled a grimace and Steve was smiling at it before he could notice “Bucky and I, of course, Clint over there and a friend of mine I helped escape Hydra’s hands, Dr. Banner.”

“Banner? As in Doctor Bruce Banner?” Asked Natasha, turning her face to the screen where Clint sat, “You helped _the hulk_ get away?”

“What should I have done? Let the evil nazis keep the giant rage monster?”

“But he is _free?_ He is dangerous.”

Steve searched for Sam’s face to see if he was the only one completely lost, but his friend had confusion painted on his face. “Ok, fill us in, who is this Doctor?”

“He is a genius in the field of nuclear physics” said Stark “But one of his experiments… went a little wrong.”

“ _A little_?” Interrupted Natasha “Everytime the man gets angry, he turns into a 8 feet monster who cannot be controlled.”

“Bruce is _working on it,_ he hasn’t had an episode since he stopped being pursued by an evil organization!”

Sam raised his voice, talking over whichever answer Natasha had “Ok, so you have a super soldier, a man who can turn into a huge beast and a real-life katniss everdeen? And you think you’re _not_ building a superhero team?”

Steve couldn’t be sure, but he thought he saw Stark’s cheeks heat up. “I… ok, yeah, whatever, call whatever you want, the point is that I’ve been looking for people to recruit. If you three want to help I think I have a plan. Clint found about a Hydra prison in Arizonas and I ran some readings on the outside with some satellites. The amount of security there is _insane_ , worse than with Bucky. and the best part? Only one person seems to be there.”

“So, Hydra has a prison for just _one guy_ ? And you want to break him out?” Asked Steve, crooking his head, a smile on his lips. It was _insane_ , the exact kind of insane he would suggest and pull it off.

“Knew you would like it, punk”

The old nickname sent his heart to the bottom of his stomach and back up and he could feel his face warming up. Steve lifted his eyes to meet Bucky’s, just to find the amused glance he was expecting. _God_ , he missed him like a limb.

“The problem” Intervened Clint “Is that my intel tells me whatever is there is not _human_.”

“So what, alien?” asked Sam

“It’s our best bet. Either way I want to get them out of there.”

“Sounds like a mission.” Smiled Natasha, soft and excited for the first time since she arrived “But we need to report back to Shield before they get suspicious, the party is finishing up by now.”

“You _didn’t_ tell Hydra we kidnapped Steve?” Asked Bucky, lifting a brow.

She shrugged “Something was up. Steve was clearly onto something and… Look, I told you, I have many opinions on Stark, but _weapon’s dealers?_ And _kidnaper_? Didn’t suit him.”

“ _Ownt_ , you like me.”

“I like Pepper and for some unknown reason she likes you. It’s different” She scoffed back, but there was no bite behind it. Tony seemed to have noticed that too, because he just flashed the charming smiles he had worn to the party.

“Ok, so. Tomorrow at dinner we meet here? All of us. We need a plan.” Steve said, his Captain America’s voice slipping on without permission.

They agreed and Clint shut off his call. Natasha and Sam left the room, and Tasha’s glance told him she would wait for him outside. Stark seemed to have the same idea, picking the empty mugs and leaving to the kitchen without looking at them. Steve wanted nothing more than to be alone with Bucky since the moment he locked eyes with him and yet being alone with him was the most awkward so far. They stood in complete silence, a good distance between them, for more seconds than Steve felt comfortable in, his skin crawling.

“Never seem you speechless before” joked Bucky, taking a step forward.

Steve laughed, his face warming “I know, I’m surprised myself… Hey do you want to come with me? Not to Shield, of course, I could… give you my address? _God,_ I sound like a teenanger.”

Bucky laughed “You blushed harder as a teenanger. But I… I should stay, Tony might need me.”

 _Oh_.

“Oh, yeah, I get it, I…” Steve shifted his eyes, trying to look _anywhere_ but Bucky’s.

But Bucky got hold of his hand, pulling him closer and kissing him again. His worries vanished the second their lips touched. They seemed small and stupid compared to _this_ , to the way they still fitted on eachothers curves 80 years latter, how Bucky still nibbled his lower lip. But when they pulled apart, Bucky’s eyes read _guilty_ all over.

He decided not to ask. Not today. Today he had Bucky alive and by his side again.

“Promise you won’t go missing again.” He said instead.

“I won’t. ‘Till the end of the line, remember?”

This phrase had a whole new meaning now, almost a hundred years after they first met. He kissed him again, softer this time, just because leaving without doing so felt like a crime. “See you tomorrow, them.”

“Tomorrow.”

Leaving the house with Bucky behind felt too much like a crime too, a stupid mistake he could fix so easily. But he left anyway.

* * *

Bucky ran to the kitchen as soon as Steve closed the door behind him. This was _stupid_ , he should be happy - and he was, happier like he thought he wouldn’t be again, but there was also a part of him so ridiculously guilty.

Guilty of _what_ was still up for discussion. Hooking up with Tony while he thought Steve was dead hardly counted as _cheating_ . Hell, Steve had a whole relationship with Peggy while _still_ dating Bucky and it didn’t count as cheating. And whatever he had with Tony was one sided. Tony saw their relationship as friends with benefits - no exclusivity required. So there wasn’t anything wrong with kissing Steve like he needed it to breathe, right?

Well, if he agreed with his own internal logic, he wouldn’t be running to the kitchen to catch Tony, but he didn’t want to dwell on that.

Tony was, thankfully, still in the kitchen. The dirty mugs were still on the sink, and the man was leaning forward on the isle, face between his hands. Was he… was he crying?

“Tones?” He asked softly

He lifted his head, turning to face him quickly. No tears, which was good, but he looked tired anyways.

“Hey, sorry I was just…”

“It’s ok. It’s been a long night.”

Tony snorted, crossing his arms around his body “Yeah, you tell me. I thought…” He hesitated for a second, before shaking his head “forget it.”

“Tony, tell me.”

“I thought you would go with Rogers, that’s all. You found him, you don’t have to stay for me.”

Bucky’s heart tightened on his chest. He moved so he was by his side, leaning his back on the counter, shoulders touching, “I want to stay. Steve is… _god_ I’ve missed him, but It’s a lot for one night.”

Tony rolled his eyes. “But you will. Go with him, I mean. Not today, but soon.”

_Are you asking me to stay?_

“Is this what this is about?”

Tony hesited “This house is too big, you know? Besides who else will bring me dinner when I’m in the lab?”

Bucky laughed softly “You can hire someone for that. And _pay them_ instead of having your great friend do all the hard work for free.”

“I give you free medical attention! Do you know how expensive it is in this country?”

They laughed and the air lightened up a bit. “But really, what’s wrong?”

He learned to read Tony during the last year. It wasn’t easy, but in the beginning, while Bucky was still getting the hang of communication again, Tony made sure to be very open and clear. His mannerisms and signals were easier to pick up from there, especially since they spent most of their time together.

Now Tony was struggling a lot. His hesitation was not obvious, but he could read it all over his face. When he spoke, he still read like he was trying to pick his thoughts very carefully.

“Ever since I got back from, you know, being held captive I…” He swallowed, starting again “Pepper and Rodney are amazing, but they could only go so far. Not their fault, of course, but it's hard to connect with people after that. You are… Look you’re the first person I met after all of this that made it suck _less_. And now that I know for sure that Obadiah is Hydra I don’t want to go back to… being alone.”

The _being without you_ was left unsaid, but he heard it anyway. _God_ , he wanted to kiss him, how messed up was that? How was it fair that he met Steve again only after he fell in love with somebody else?

“I’m not going anywhere.” He said, and Tony lifted a single eyebrow at him “I mean it. Look, you and I are a team, Steve isn’t going to take that away. He is like… my Pepper.”

“Yeah, but I’m not in love with Pepper.”

 _Oh_.

“Is this what this is about? The… romantic part?”

Tony stiffed by his side, turning his face to look Bucky in the eyes. He was hesitating again, this time it was clear and for a second Bucky wondered if he _hadn’t_ imagined all those times he saw the way Tony looked at him. What if Tony felt the same? Would he even _want_ to know now? Now that he had to make a choice?

But instead Tony cracked a smile “I will miss the mindblowing sex.”

Bucky laughed, ignoiring disappointment that ran through him. “Of course you will, I’m great in bed.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s pretend it’s not half because you have the estamina of a fucking army… _god_ now that both of you are supersoldiers you and Steve just _won’t stop_ fucking.”

Bucky’s mind went blank for a second before he lifted both eyebrows at Tony “You can’t just say _shit like that_.”

Tony laughed at him “Oh, C’mon, are you going to blush _now_? You can’t tell me you weren’t thinking about it.”

“I wasn’t until _now_ , Jesus, Tony.”

“What? I’m just saying. If you two ever want to spice things up, give me a call”

Tony’s eyes glimmered with the distinct charm they had when he regretted what he said, but Bucky didn’t quite register it because the image of Steve _and_ Tony shut about everything else down. _God_ , Tony could _not_ just say shit like that. He blinked a couple times, meeting Tony’s eyes again.

“So, you’re ok?”

“Yeah I…” He hesitated again, and Bucky held his breath “I’m happy for you, you know? Not everyone gets that second chance at love and you more than earned it.”

 _I thought you were my second chance,_ he thought, a little disappointed. Which was stupid: this was everything he wanted, he had Steve back, alive and breathing and in one piece. Shit, if anything it was selfish, what did he want? Did he want for Tony to declare his love just to break his heart? It was _better_ if this was one sided, only one heart broken and no impossible choices to be made.

So instead of dealing with all that he clapped Tony in the back like old friends, like they didn’t usually end up sleeping tangled in each other's limbs after missions and said “We better get some sleep, tomorrow will be a long day.”

* * *

Tony woke up in the afternoon cold and alone and _sad_ , like he was a stupid teenanger in love and not a grown man. Hell, even his bed, the same bed where he woke up so many days alone feeling just fine, felt too big. His head was killing him too, maybe he shouldn’t have drunk after Bucky and him talked. But honestly what did he _think_ was going to happen? Even if his stupidly charming ex hadn’t miraculously shown up Bucky wouldn’t fall in love with him.

Pepper should be proud of him. He held back _I love you_ so many times yesterday he never wanted to hear again that he had no self control, honestly. It wasn’t fair on Bucky, it wasn't his fault he didn’t love Tony back and it wasn’t his fault he loved Rogers instead. Honestly, Tony even _got_ why Bucky loved him. He had always pictured Captain America to be a little boring, too much of a class president, but the man who smirked at him and danced at his party and agreed on a plan to overthrow his employers was _nothing_ like that.

He growled, rolling to hide his face on his pillow. Maybe if he never got up he wouldn’t have to face them and it would all be ok.

Jarvis begged to differ. “Ms. Potts is calling, sir.”

He rolled on his bed again, not bothering to look presentable as he waved the screen in front of him. She was already dressed, which made sense giving it was 2 pm and she had her live on tracks. She also looked pissed, which, yeah, also made sense.

“What the _fuck_ happened yesterday?” She asked “You _vanished_ , I thought the plan was for you to come back.”

“Yeah, we had a few problems, nothing we couldn’t handle.”

“I can see that, you look like shit. What happened?”

“Thank you, I love you too.” He said, but all she did was lift an eyebrow at him “Ok, fine. Bucky’s ex showed up to punch us, but turns out he is _fine_ , actually, and on our side. We met a few Shield’s agents who are also, you know, not fascists, and we had a late night meeting. It was a full night.”

“Bucky’s ex? But I thought…” He could pinpoint the second the penny dropped “You mean _Captain America?_ ”

“One and only. You met him, the blond muscle that I flirted with at the party?”

“That was _Captain America?_ Oh, Tony, is this why you look like the night we broke up?”

 _Ouch_.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Tony, don’t bullshit me, I’ll call Rodey.”

He tried to argue, the last thing he needed was the best friend squad pampering his broken heart, hadn’t his ego taking enough? Apparently not, because Rodey picked up after two rings, his face showing on the screen next to hers.

“What’s the emergency? Why do you look like shit, Tony?”

Great. That was _peachy_. “You don’t look like a model yourself. Look, I need to plan some…”

“He is heartbroken.”

“No I’m…”

“What did Barnes do? Do we need to punch him? Because honestly Tony I liked it better in college when you dated skinny, nerd boys. I can’t punch that guy.”

“Bucky didn’t do anything and I’m _fine._ His ex-boyfriend is alive and they are happily together again, that’s all.”

Pepper filled Rodey in, despite Tony’ attempts to change the subject. By the end he didn’t seem worried about _Captain America_ being alive, or them having a team to destroy Hydra, which were much more pressing matters in Tony's opinion. Of course not. Instead, he asked “So, _are_ Bucky and Rogers together again or did you just push him away before he could try to explain?”

 _Fuck, I need new friends_. “They kissed right in front of me, nothing much left to explain. Besides you should see Bucky’s eyes, he looked like a puppy everytime he even glanced at Rogers.”

“Oh, do you think he means the way he looks at Tony, pipper?” Rodey’s voice was sarcastic, a smile on his lips

“Oh, you mean the look we keep telling Tony about, while he refuses to believe us?”

Tony rolled his eyes “You’re the worst friends I have. Besides, I told you, they _kissed_ , nothing to misinterpret there.”

They looked at him in such a way that Tony was sure they would be rolling their eyes at each other had they been in person. Thankfully to him, he didn’t have to presence his best friends teaming up against him.

“Stop with the eyes. Look, it’s afternoon, I need to go to the lab, I’ve got a feeling I will need the suit soon enough.”

“Eat something before, Tony, and don’t lock yourself in the lab for three days.” Pepper said it lightly, but the concern was clear

“I have a meeting tonight, I couldn’t even if I wanted. See you.”

“Take care, Tones.”

They turned off the call and Tony was again alone in his bed. He could do this, he had handled worse situations before. This was _fine_. Yes. He took a cold shower and some painkillers before he got dressed, leaving his room straight to the lab.

Working on his suit felt the closest things he ever had to a routine. He knew the ins and outs of its circuits and barely had to look over the schematics to know what he needed to do next. If they were going to break into the facility they would need the suit to work, not just the mask, and fixing its small details stopped Tony’s mind from wandering yet again to Bucky.

“Eat.” Bucky’s voice startled him over the sound of the loud music. He turned to see the man standing with a plate on his hands and a raised eyebrow. To hell with avoiding thinking about him, apparently.

“I thought you said I should hire someone to do that.” he jocked, accepting the plate of spaghetti.

“Well, you haven’t yet, so it rests on my shoulders. How are you doing?”

“Are you going to tell me I look like shit too?”

Bucky laughed “I take Pepper called.” Tony growled in agreement, mouth filled with food “But don’t worry you look… charming.”

He swallowed, cleaning the side of his lips with his thumb. It was a little disgusting, but Bucky had seen him do worse and there was no point in _seducing_ him anyways. “Oh yeah, I bet I look just great. Slept well?”

“Like a baby” It was clearly a lie, but Tony didn’t push him “Are you finished with this yet?”

He looked at the suit pieces on his table. He was stalling and he knew it, deep down. He never cared about _perfect_ before, having experiments blow on your face is part of why science and engineering was so fun, after all. But not with this, this couldn’t.

“Yeah, I’m just… making sure the circuit can sustain a lot of energy. The readings of voltage in that Hydra facility are off the charts, I want to be ready if we do break in.”

“If I know Steve, he will be on board with your crazy plan.”

He tried very hard not to grimace at the word _Steve,_ instead he smiled a little too widely “My _crazy plans_ saved your ass, so you could show some respect.”

“Your face is dirty with tomato sauce, doll, it’s very hard to show you _any_ respect.”

“Oh ok, if this is how you want to play it. I have the new circuits for your sensitivity problem, but I guess it's better to leave it alone.”

Bucky rolled his eyes, wiggling his robotic fingers “As if you would pass any opportunity to play with his beauty”

 _Shit_ , he was right. Ok, whatever, he could do it. All he had to do was not think how he created the addiction with sex in mind and it would be ok.

“I hate you. Ok, just let me finish this and I’ll fix your arm.”

Taking Bucky’s arm off was always the hardest part of doing it, but once it was off it felt almost as familiar as his own suit. They chatted sometimes, lightly and fun as it usually was, but mostly they were in a comfortable silence as Bucky observed him, occasionally passing him a tool he noticed would be needed a second before Tony.

It was easy to forget he was enhancing his arm so he could enjoy sex better with somebody else.

“Ok, you might feel a little sensitive for the first few hours, let me know tonight if it still stings.” He warned, picking the arm on his hands and moving towards Bucky “But it shouldn’t hurt. I’ll attach it now, ok?”

He nodded, and Tony took his time to connect the wires while reconnecting the arm again. The first time they kissed it had been a scene like this: Tony fixing his arm, his entire body in Bucky’s personal space, his face too close to his neck. It always felt a little too intimate: the touching too inevitable and too careful, kissing was just the next natural step. Tony stopped himself before attaching it all the way, leaving it a little loose around the shoulders. “Does it hurt?” He meant to say it loud, but his voice came as a whisper instead.

Buck moved his metal fingers, face turning to look at him, and Tony _should’ve_ stepped back, give him space, but instead he stayed put, breaths tangling in front of him. He was startled when the cold touch caressed his arm, but he didn’t move then either, letting the robotic fingers follow a path around his bare arms.

“No, it feels quite nice.” Bucky answered back, his voice low too, as if they both couldn’t make a sound louder than that.

Tony _should_ ’ve finished attaching the arm, but his body was no longer working as it should have. He instead leaned in, feeling the arm tighten his grip on his arm, their eyes locked on eachother. He _couldn’t_ be imagining this, the way Bucky’s eyes flickered to his lips, the tension between them _couldn’t_ just be sexual, not in the way he pulled him closer and...

“Hey, it’s me, your robot said I could…”

Roger’s voice by the door sent an electric pulse to his spine and he jumped apart from Bucky in an instant.

“Steve, Hi.” Bucky had the decency to sound as guilty as Tony felt.

“What is this?” Rogers said, walking towards them

“Oh, I… we were just…”

“You lost an _arm?”_

 _Oh,_ it was about the arm, this wasn’t as bad as Tony thought it would go. He turned to Bucky, reading the relief on his face as clear as day, and finished connecting what was left. He didn’t have to deal with that. No. “Remember. It should feel sensitive, but not hurt. And you’re early Rogers.”

* * *

Steve had decided to focus on the arm, because that was the _easiest_ to deal with, but Bucky could at least make it less obvious that he was guilty about something. Which meant he didn’t walk in in _just_ a normal day at the lab. So. Arm. Bucky didn’t have it.

“I… Yeah I lost mine when I fell off that train in the forties. Hydra built me one, but uh…”

“But I gave him a better one.” Finished Stark, turning to his screens behind him

Steve looked at it. It _did_ look good, suited this version of Bucky, with the long hair and beard, but the scars around the base were large and messy - made my Hydra, most likely. “Does it hurt?”

“Not if I did my job right, it doesn’t.” Stark answered without looking over his screens “How does it feel?”

“I told you, ‘feels fine.”

“Your readings are normal, let me know if anything changes.” He spined on his heels, looking at Steve “Now you, Rogers, is early. Is anything wrong?”

“Uh… No, not at all. I had some free time and I…” He felt his face warm up. “I wanted to see Bucky.”

Steve didn’t know Stark, but the smile he pulled had _fake_ written all over it. “Great. I’m just finished here, you can go upstairs.”

“Tony…” Bucky started saying, his voice soft as he got up

Stark promptly ignored him, keeping his eyes on Steve. But his smile had softened a little “Keep an eye on him. He sometimes doesn’t register pain, I think it may be a supersoldier thing. But he will do this nose thing, like a small cringe.”

Steve snorted “It's not a supersoldier thing, he did this before, he’s just an asshole.”

“That’s rich coming from you two.” Spoke Bucky, but Stark ignored him again

“Well, if he does the nose thing, let me know. Now if you don’t mind, I have some things to finish.”

Steve nodded, eyeing Bucky. He seemed a little divided, opening his mouth to say something to Stark, who already had his back to them, working on something on his computer. Instead, Bucky grabbed an empty plate on the table next to him and moved upstairs.

He was silent the whole way to the kitchen, placing the dirty plate on the sink before turning to him.

“So you want to talk about that?” Asked Steve, crossing his arms over his chest and leaning back on the aisle.

“Talk about what?”

“Eighty years and you still can’t lie to me for shit.”

“It’s nothing.”

Steve rolled his eyes, stepping in Bucky’s personal space. “Ok, I’ll start then, Stark likes you.”

Bucky’s face told him he pressed the exact right bottom.

“He doesn’t.” His voice was so low Steve wouldn’t have heard if he wasn’t right up to him.

 _Oh_.

“But you like him.”

It wasn’t a question and Bucky didn’t treat it as one. Instead he looked away from Steve, guilty all over his eyes, clear anyways. “I thought you were dead.”

“I’m not angry at you.” He wasn’t. It was not Bucky’s fault, he had the right to move on. _Hell_ , he had no right to be angry after everything with Peggy. Still hurt though, he wished Bucky would at least meet his eyes.

“Of course you’re not, it's you.” He snorted “But It’s still unfair.”

Unfair, that’s a good word. Had he found Bucky just to _miss him_ ? _God_ , he was an ashole. He kissed Bucky yesterday, invited him over, he didn’t even consider he might… That he might not...

“Do you still love me?”

Bucky’s eyes snapped back to him, sure and sturdy as they always were, and Steve knew what he would say before he even said it. “Of course I do. Of _course_ I love you, Steve.”

His chest lightened for the first time since he set foot in the lab. Ok, bigger problem avoided. This was dealable then. “Are you and Stark together? Because if yes we…”

“No. We’re just friends.”

Steve lifted an eyebrow. “Oh, so you two _weren’t_ about to kiss when I walked in the lab?”

Bucky growled “We’re just friends… But we sleep together sometimes. Slept. I was going to tell you, just... When we had time.”

He nodded “So, you two like each other, live together and sleep together… but are not dating?”

“Tony doesn’t like me, I told you.”

He didn’t know Stark at all, but him liking Bucky fit all the missing pieces of his puzzle. The sad looks, the guilty grimaces, the weird, out-of-place, snapping, the pet names… Tony _liked_ Bucky back, whether he told him or not. Bucky had called this _unfair_ early and he was right; he got a little too late to Bucky, but Stark waited a little too long, and now part of him wanted to move Bucky out of this mansion and make sure they would never sleep a single night apart again. But instead, it was unfair, so he sighed “Buck, he likes you back.”

“He doesn’t. Trust me. He told me himself it was just sex, but I…” He hesitated “ _God,_ Steve, I love him.”

Steve knew this would come, but it still hit him. Of course he loved him, he wouldn’t be this distressed if he didn’t, he wouldn’t…

“Can we not talk about this now?” Bucky interrupted his thoughts, reaching to cup Steve’s face “I love _you_ , and if you still…”

“If you even _think_ about asking if I still want you I will kick your ass, jerk.”

Bucky laughed, and it didn’t sound light, but it still sounded like the most wonderful sound. “You can _try,_ you’re not the only supersoldier in this relationship anymore, punk.”

Instead of answering, Steve kissed him. They had kissed less than 24 hours ago, but he already missed the feeling of Bucky’s lips. However he was startled by the sudden cold on his waist, pulling back.

“Sorry. Metal hand.”

It crossed his mind briefly that Bucky had been wearing gloves the entire time yesterday, before he went back to kiss him, pressing him against the counter as he deepened the kiss. Bucky’s hand didn’t surprise him this time and he shivered as he felt the cold under his shirt, pulling him by the waist as he bit his lower lip.

He let his hands move to Bucky’s legs, pulling him up so he was sitting on the counter, Steve between his legs. His mouth left his lips only to lower to his neck - back in the forties he used to have an especially sensible spot just over the ear and… _yes_ , he still had it, if the soft moan he let out was any indication. Steve smiled over his neck, licking the spot he just bit before returning to Bucky’s mouth. _God_ , he missed this.

But Bucky pulled back. The lust in his eyes was clear as day, but he blushed slightly anyways “Not… _here_.”

The _not in Tony’s kitchen_ was implied and _yeah_ it made sense, but it didn’t mean he had to like it. He took a step back, still between Bucky’s legs but with enough space that he felt like he could breath again “We can catch up instead, in living room?”

“Sounds good, yeah.”

* * *

Bucky only saw Tony again when the other agents arrived. He felt a little guilty to leave Tony alone, even if it _was_ just a couple hours in his lab. They weren’t always together, on a normal day he would be upstairs doing his own things. But this _wasn’t_ a normal day and he was upstairs with Steve’s arms around him talking like they used to. He at least hoped Tony had drank some water.

Clint was there in person this time, entering the house along with the other two and throwing himself on the sofa as if he was a regular. Steve coughed as Natasha and Sam raised an eyebrow at him, his arm still behind Bucky, but he didn’t move. Tony was the last to sit down, ignoring the empty space by Bucky and choosing the empty sofa on the opposite side.

“So, now that we are all here I propose we call Bruce, he is involved in this too.”

“Does he even want to?” Asked Bucky. The doctor had helped him when he was still under mind control, but always by video calls. “Last time he didn’t seem to like the idea of coming back to the US”

“I talked to him, he is fine with it.”

Nobody disagreed, even if Bucky could see Romanoff glaring at Clint with disapproval. Tony asked Jarvis to turn the call on and within seconds he picked up. Bruce was just like Bucky last saw him and _honestly_ only he could look like a college professor while living in the middle of a small village in India as a healer.

“Uh… _Shit_ , Tony I thought it was only going to be you and Barnes.”

Bucky snorted at that. He sounded the same as last time too.

“I told you we talked to some agents.”

“Yeah I didn’t know I would _bring them_. Sorry. I’m Dr. Banner, you can call me Bruce.”

“It’s a pleasure, I’m Captain Steve Rogers.”

“Oh, Tony told me about you, it’s truly fascinating how you are still alive, are all your vital signals the same?”

Steve lifted his eyebrows at him “I… guess.”

“Incredible. Well, then you must be… Natasha and Sam? And of course Clint, I know you, how are you?”

“I’m gonna be honest, I liked it better when we weren’t planning a coup against my employers, but I’m fine. How are you handling?”

“Well, I’ve been _worse_.”

Bucky laughed at it, along with Clint and Tony, but Natasha frowned her nose. “Enough with the introductions, what’s the plan?”

Tony nodded “I’ve been thinking. If we’re going to invade that prison it's _going_ to draw attention, we need to act quickly between those missions, while they are still destabilized. The biggest problem is that we have _no idea_ what or who is inside that, so we…”

“Clint said it was alien, right?” Asked Sam

Natasha nodded by his side, taking out a small brief out of her purse “Clint and I have done some digging today. The electromagnetic readings of that place are… bizarre to say the least, which seemed to suggest it’s just a mad scientist’s lab. If Clint is right and it _is_ alien it’s probably being used as a lab rat.”

 _Like me_ , thought Bucky, except this thing wasn’t being used as a weapon as far as they could tell. Not yet, anyways.

“So we have to deal with the possibility that whoever is in there is _not_ on our side.” concluded Steve, nodding

“If they _aren’t_ , where do we keep them?” Asked Sam

“I have a facility downstairs made to hold a super soldier, it should work.”

“You know that doesn’t help your whole _evil mad scientist_ look right?” Sam continued

“That’s not the point.” Tony said “The point is that we probably need two fronts working here. One planning the break in and the second planning how to take Hydra down. Those two plans are intertwined, but now that a lot of you know the truth it won’t take long for Hydra to find you out, we need to be fast.”

Steve nodded, there were no traces of _Steve Rogers, idiot in love_ in this Captain America look. “You’re right. And I have an idea about that, but you won’t like it.”

“I hate it already” Bucky murmured loud enough for people to hear

“I told you yesterday that I think Fury gave me this mission because he knew something was up. I believe he _isn’t_ Hydra, we can bring him in this.”

“You want to expose ourselves to Shield’s second in command? Are you crazy?” Sam sounded as outraged as Bucky felt

“It is a very shitty plan, Steve.” Natasha added.

“You said Grant should’ve been Fury's first choice for this mission, right?” Asked Tony, a soft frown on his face

No. _No_. Bucky knew that stupid face. “Tones you can’t possibly be considering this.”

Both Steve and Tony ignored him. “Yeah, I’m never assigned undercover missions.”

“Yeah, I can see why, you’re a lousy flirt.” By his side, Bucky could see Steve blushing softly as Natasha snorted. Tony seemed satisfied with the reaction, as he continued talking “Grant is a known Hydra agent, maybe he sent you because he knew he couldn’t trust Grant.”

“Yes! Besides, he told me Shield’s secrets have secrets. It was very weird. At first I thought he just wanted to understand what Iron Man had stolen, but now? I think he is on our side.”

“I mean, if _I_ needed to trust one agent not to be a weird neo-nazi it would be captain America.” Tony agreed, nodding and _honestly_ Bucky did have a type and he hated it.

“No, no way. He is the highest ranking person after the fucking director. You’re both insane.”

“He did call me for a meeting a few days ago to talk about sobre Shield security breaches.” Said Clint, crooking his head “I thought it was just normal procedure, I talk a lot to Fitz in the science department, but now that you mentioned… It was a bit odd. Maybe _he_ was doing some digging of his own.”

“You _agree_ with Steve?” asked Natasha, turning her body to Clint “Until yesterday you were keeping this from _me,_ but you think Fury is trustworthy? That man keeps secrets from his house plants.”

“There is just one way of knowing.” Said Steve, looking at Tony, who nodded.

“I talk to him, as Iron Man. But he won’t trust it if you aren’t with me”

“I know.” agreed Steve “The rest of you can keep out of it, if he is Hydra, well, I just burned my cover, but you guys are still safe. Hydra must know I would turn my back if I ever found out, but _you_ are still a safe bet for them.”

“Sounds risky, Steve, are you sure?” Asked Sam

 _Of course he is_ , thought Bucky, _they both are_ . “Ok, but if you’re doing this, we’re doing this the right way. Tony _has_ to keep his mask at all times and we call him from a neutral setting, one he can’t recognize. Jarvis can shut all external sound.”

“Sounds like a plan. Let’s go”

Tony took his sunglasses out, putting them on his face before turning them into his mask. The way the tech moved around to frame his head always looked graceful to Bucky.

“Let me go first, Captain” His voice came out robotic from the mask

Steve nodded. His eyes had shifted back to the _Captain_ look he had yesterday and Bucky almost expected him to be holding his shield. Tony moved a chair so his back was facing a white wall, opening a screen in front of him and asking for Steve to write the number down. When Fury picked up, Iron Man’s face was the only thing on the shot.

The man on the other side of the screen was a large desk in front of a larger window. A black man with an eyepatch was sitting behind it and _honestly an eyepatch?_ Could he look more like a comic book villain? He had his eye down, writing something on the computer in front of him. Bucky tried to remember if he recognized that face from his Hyra days, but he got nothing. “What is it, I’m in the middle of… Iron Man? Well, can’t say this isn’t a surprise. How did you get this number?”

“I’m here to exchange information. I’ve been informed you want to intel on Hydra.”

Fury’s face shifted as Tony said those words. He reached for a small controller on his drawer, and behind him the windows were shut down, leaving him illuminated by artificial light. “How do you know that name?”

“I’ve done my homework. I take you are interested.”

“Even if I was, why should I believe a word you say? You’re an international criminal, If I remember correctly.”

Tony’s face shifted slightly to look at Steve, who understood his queue. He stepped in shot, side by side with Ironman “Because I’m here.”

Fury laughed “Motherfucker, you figured it out, didn’t you? I knew you would. Since this is the case you can take out this helmet, Stark, I know it’s you.”

Tony hesitated, but his mask turned back into his sunglasses in a second “How did you know?”

“You’re not the only one who did his homework, Stark. I had my eye on you for a while now. Now, I assume this is why you asked me to delay our meeting today, Rogers.”

Steve didn’t answer, instead he lifted an eyebrow “If you know about Stark, why send me on this mission at all?”

“Because I can’t do much without calling attention to myself. Pierce has been watching me ever since I voice my insatisfaction with being left out about what Iron man stole that day.”

“So I was right, you _aren’t_ Hydra?”

“Do I look like someone who would join a group created by actual nazis?”

“If we will or will not trust you depends on the intel you give us.” Added Tony, clearly not impressed with Fury’s facade “What do you know?”

“Well, I know a many load of things, but I think what you _want_ to know is if I know Hydra has infiltrated Shield. Yes, I do. I had my suspicions when we first found Captain Rogers frozen. Pierce wanted to cover it up, but luckily the agent who found him had already called me about it. Coulson woke him up before they could get his hands on him.”

“So Coulson is also not Hydra?”

“No, there are a few of us. Barton is clear, but you know that since he is your intel. Is he there? Tell him he is not as good of a liar as he thinks.”

All eyes turned to Clint, who rolled his eyes, mocking Fury in a silence grimace.

“Why didn’t you tell me all of that?”

“Because you’re also not a good liar. Besides, I had to look like I was playing nice. I had to find a mission for Grant and Bobbi to make sure you would be the only possible answer. But that’s not the point. The point is that you have a plan on how to dismantle Hydra, and I want in. Spill.”

Steve and Tony looked at each other, before Steve started filling Fury in. He nodded, adding a bit of his own information before saying “I can find you the blueprints of that facility and get some of my agents ready to take over command. Tell Clint we need a meeting somewhere safe to select who is clean. That is an _insane_ plan, but it just might work.”

He shut the call down, and the whole room collectively seemed lighter.

“Ok, so we have Fury on our side, as it seems.” Said Natasha

“And I’m liking out odds to attack the facility.” Added Sam “We’re a pretty unique team, and we have _two_ supersoldiers? With Stark as our _guy in the chair_ we...” Bucky laughed before he could hold back. “What’s so funny?”

“Tony is _not_ our guy in the chair.”

They all turned to Tony, who had a small smirk on his lips.

“What’s your game, shellhead?”

“I can show you. C’mon.”

Tony guided them all to the lab downstairs. The suit was not in pieces scattered around tables as Bucky was used to seeing, but instead hanging completely assembled in the middle of the room. He smiled at Tony, who was clearly proud of his own creation.

Sam whistled “Damn, you build that?”

“Yes, it’s finished and test-drived.”

Bucky’s smile fell “You _tested it_ ?” He swallowed down the _without me_ that was hanging on his tongue. Tony _tested it_? He had been by his side for ages waiting for Tony to stop being a perfectionist, hell, he got blasted once by accident while he was helping with the gauntlets and he didn’t get to see the first test drive?

Tony blinked, but didn’t meet his gaze as he said “Yup, this afternoon.”

The _while you were with Steve_ was left hanging, but Bucky heard it all too clearly. Oh, ok, so that’s how he was going to be. He wanted to shout at him, because this was _unfair_ , it was _Tony_ who said their relationship was friends with benefits, it had been Bucky who got his heart broken and what, just because he spent one afternoon not hanging around the lab like a stupid high school kid with a crush he _missed_ the test?

But no one else seemed to notice his quiet outrage, filling Tony with questions. Even Bruce, on his video call, seemed curious about the tech and announced he was making plans to come back to the US as soon as it was safe, so he could help with the invasion.

“I’m liking our odds.” Said Sam smiling, but Bucky barely heard him.

This time, when Steve invited over, he said yes.

* * *

“Are you ok?” asked Steve when they arrived at his small apartment building.

Bucky had been quiet the whole drive, eyes out of focused. Steve knew something was bothering him, but he couldn’t exactly pin what.

“I’m fine.” Bucky murmured, and Steve looked at him with eyebrows raised. “Ok, fine, It’s Tony related. I don’t want to talk about it. Especially not _now,_ c’mon, what was the last time I visited your house?”

Steve chuckled, pulling out his keys and opening the door. “God, I must’ve been, what, twenty five? I’m well past eighty now”

He pushed the door open and they both entered. It was the same boring space, small and crumpled, the only decoration being the wall of red threads and newspaper, with Iron Man photograph right in the middle. Bucky whistled.

“Damn, Steve, that’s what I’d call an obsession, should _I_ be jealous?”

He shrugged, a little embarrassed. After hanging in Stark’s mansion for a day, his apartment seemed particularly… shitty. “I’m sorry about the place, I know you’re used with…”

“With cold floors and being tied up in a Hydra facility. You’re right, this is amazing.” Bucky smiled at him “C’mon, Steve, it’s me.”

He was right. 80 years later and it was still Bucky smiling at him like he hung the stars himself. Steve pulled Bucky by the hand, kissing him softly before saying against his lips “So, I was thinking we call for food and have a proper dinner, what do you say?”

Bucky smirked, moving his mouth to Steve’s ear, and he knew what he was going to suggest before he even said it. “I say” he whispered, lips glossing over his loube “that you show me the bedroom first. What do you think?”

Instead of waiting for an answer, he kissed the skin right under the ear.

The next morning Steve woke up for the first time in what it felt like ages feeling like he got a proper night of sleep. He was warm, arms around Bucky who was still soundly asleep next to him. Had Bucky always been that warm or was this a new supersoldier thing? He couldn’t remember (but he honestly couldn’t care either). Whatever it was the reason, it was good.

He took a moment to stare, he felt like he earned it. He couldn’t remember the last time they woke up like this, tangled and naked in a proper bed. During the war it was a miracle if they could sleep together, let alone enjoy the laziness of the morning. Bucky looked beautiful, the new hair suited him as it lay around and over his face and even the metal arm was somehow graceful, like Stark had built a part of him and not just a piece of machinery.

“It’s rude to stare, you know?” murmured Bucky, eyes still closed

“I’m not staring.”

“Uh.. yes you are.” Bucky turned his head, opening his eyes ever so slightly to meet Steve’s “See? Staring.”

Steve snorted, leaning so he could kiss the side of his jaw “I love you.”

Bucky opened his eyes, a smile creeping on his lips “I love you too, Punk. Now let’s go back to sleep, it’s early.”

“It’s almost noon.”

“Almost.” He closed his eyes again, pulling Steve by his arm so his weight would drop on top of him

Steve laughed softly, kissing the top of his head “I promised Stark I’d meet him by lunch so we could discuss the planning.”

Bucky’s body tensed under him and Steve signed, getting out from him and sitting on the bed. “Honestly, Bucky, this is ridiculous. What happened yesterday?”

Bucky growled, hiding his whole face in the pillow. “ _Hetestedtesuit_ ”

“You have to talk like a person.”

Bucky made another few indistinguishable sounds before moving, sitting on the bed like Steve “Its… He tested the suit. Without me.”

“Oh. And… is this bad?”

“Its stupid… Look I’ve been helping him get that suit on tracks for months now. Every stupid modification, every stupid code mistake… I’m just… Winter Soldier and Iron Man are a stupid team and I wanted to see that stupid suit working.”

Steve signed. He knew Bucky. Even this new, Winter-Soldier version of Bucky was still his and he _knew_ him. He moved closer, placing his hands on his face softly. “If you want to date him…”

“That’s _not_ what this is about!”

“Yes, it is. Look. When I fell for Peggy you were gods’ know were on a mission and I was alone, trying to understand how to deal with being Captain America. She was there for me, and when we met again you understood that. And so did she. He is your Peggy, I get it. I’m… I can’t say I’m not jealous. I am. But I can deal with it, you deserve it. Him.”

Bucky sighed, letting his head fall in Steve’s shoulders “Thank you. But I told you, he doesn’t like me back.”

“Well, if he changes his mind just know that I’m ok with it.”

“I’m sorry.”

Steve moved so he could lift Bucky’s face on his hand. “For falling in love? You can’t control that. As long as you love me too I’m fine.”

“You’re a very good boyfriend, you know that?”

Steve smiled “Keep that in mind next time I drag you into a suicide plan.”

* * *

Tony tried not to flinch when he saw Bucky and Rogers arriving together, because honestly what did he expect? If he wasn’t so bitter about it, he would’ve found them adorable: they hadn’t seen each other in 80 years, but they still melted around each other. But he _was_ bitter about it, so when Bucky announced he had a call with Natasha planned and wouldn’t hang around while planning, Tony was grateful.

“So. What do you have in mind, Stark?” asked Rogers as soon as they reached his lab, grabbing a chair to sit backwards in. Tony felt his mind lagging for a second.

“I’ve been studying the maps Fury sent us. I think a stealth mission is… almost impossible.”

“But we can’t just burst in, can we? I mean, they can transport our target before we even get there if we aren’t fast.”

“They’ve been keeping this guy under high security, I don’t know if they can even hold him a ship.”

“You don’t know Shield’s helicarriers, they can hold anything, Stark.”

Tony opened his mouth to say that _no way_ they could transporte the amount of energy they had been using in this facility, but what came out was “can you show me then?”

He nodded, searching his own folders until he pulled the paper he wanted and Tony couldn’t hold back a smile “Have anyone told you you’re old fashioned?”

Rogers arched an eyebrow “Paper is easier to organize!”

“Yeah, if you’re 80.”

“I _am_ 80, thank you very much.”

“Oh, I’m sorry, forgot I was talking to a senior citizen. But don’t worry, I wouldn’t give you a day past 30”

Rogers laughed at that. “Oh, how nice of you to say” he said with the cheeky smile on his lips he wore when they were dancing over at the gala “C’mon Stark, what did you want with the helicarriers blue prints?”

Oh, right, breaking in planning. He asked for Jarvis to scan the files, opening the image in holographic blue in front of him. The plane _was_ good, Rogers was right on that front. Solid structure and good stability and “Is this a G-387 facility? Those things could hold a _god_ if they wanted to. Well, maybe not a god, but definitely a Hulk.”

“Told you, we need to work around this.”

But as Tony zoomed in the picture, he felt himself smiling at him “Thankfully, I’m better than a god.” He turned the hologram so it was hanging between them, the exterior propulser showing “Can you see this? This the power station. It’s how they fuel and charge this thing. If I can get my hands on this I can disable the entire ship.”

Rogers arched an eyebrow at him “I wouldn’t say _better than a god_ , but I’m impressed, this could work.”

“It’s because you haven’t seen me doing it yet.” Tony winked “So, part 1 of the plan is cutting off their escape route, what else?”

He watched as Rogers looked at his own maps from the place, neatly printed in A3 paper. “I think this lateral entrance is our best call, where they drop off food.”

Tony nodded, opening his own hologram and zooming in the place where Steve was pointing to. “Jarvis, find any blind spots in this area.”

“There are no blind spots, sir.”

Of course not. “Shit, ok, I can hack the building, but they will notice. If they haven’t enhanced security after I broke Bucky out, which is unlikely, we would have 7 minutes.”

“Let’s round it down to five, then. So you hack it, we have five minutes in and out. It’s not enough time.”

“No, we’ll need to find whoever they have locked in five minutes and figure how the _fuck_ we espace with someone else after we’re spoted. What if we…”

He enlarged the map so it was bigger than the space between them, the blue light distorted where it touched them. He needed a way out. A door they could burst through, maybe if he found the mainframe, there had to be...

“Did you design those?” Roger’s sudden question snapped Tony back to reality

“What?”

“The holograms. Did you design them?”

“Oh. Yeah, ages ago based on my first PhD. I wanted a computer that didn’t hold me back, why?”

He could swear on his mother’s grave that Rogers blushed “It’s just… they suit you. Like an extension of you. It’s very aesthetically pleasing.”

Tony laughed “Is this your way of saying I look hot?”

Now the blush on his face was clear, even under the blue-ish light and it was a little ridiculous that a man that big could blush. “No. I mean, not that you’re ugly. I just… It looks like a painting. That’s what I wanted to say”

Tony blinked, the smile still on his lips “Are you really an artist?”

“What?”

“That day at the gala, you told me you were a failed artist.”

He chuckled, running a hand through his hair “Yes, I am. Very failed, none of my various biographies care to mention I was an art’s major before the war.”

“You’re still alive, Steve.” His name rolled out of his tongue like he was used to saying it “I mean, I know at your age it must be hard, but you still have a year or two, you can still paint.”

He rolled his eyes “I don’t see myself doing it for, you know, great art galleries anymore. I already have a full time job.”

“Take it from someone who never had a hobby that _didn’t_ turn into a giant work project: sometimes you just need a hobby.” He smiled softly at Steve, the blue hologram still reaching for them both “Besides, you did promise you would paint me so I could hang on my living room. I’ll hold you on that.”

Steve laughed “Sure, Tony.”

* * *

Steve left a couple hours after that, the plan only beginning to form a shape. He came back the next day and the day after, trying to make that plan make any sense. Tony was… weird to work with. He sometimes seemed to forget anyone else was in the room, the gears working behind his eyes. It was both fascinating and frustrating to work with someone who held himself as the smartest in the room, even if he was right.

When he arrived the next day, Tony was fixing something. They always met at his lab, so Steve logically knew that he was an inventor. He had seen the weird things scattered around his lab and he had read about his empire of weapons, but he had never seen him working on anything. He moved so not to stir Tony, he looked focused.

Above him there was a blue hologram of whatever he was working on, he sometimes lifted his eyes to it before lowering them again. He was always fascinated by the way the blue light suited Tony. It gave him an insane urge to paint him, maybe with watercolors, the way the light hit his eyes just right or suited the light blue light that poked through Stark’s shirts.

“Enjoying the view, Capsicle?” Tony said, turning to look at him. There was grease on his face and he was holding a screwdriver on one hand and Steve felt his cheeks warmer “Aren’t you early?”

“No, actually I’m late.”

“Oh. Shit. I just need to finish this, won’t take long. If you want coffee it’s over there”

He pointed at a small table with an electric coffee maker and an ungodly amount of mugs. He grabbed one, adding some sugar before approaching Tony's workspace. He recognized what was opened on his table as he went back to work “Are those Sam’s wings?”

“What? Oh, yeah, ever since he showed me I was _dying_ to get my hands on them.”

Steve nodded, but Sam was a little protective of his wings. He could count the number of times he let _him_ touch them, let alone a stranger. “And he… let you?”

“I promise cool upgrades. His wing was favoring his left side, leaving him a little unbalanced, so I fixed that. I also modified so it’s connected to Jarvis, so he can call for help and have easy information. I ran some check ups too, Natasha’s belt had a few Hydra malwares and I wanted to make sure no one else was infected.”

Steve’s eyes followed Tony’s hand where Natasha’s belt and gloves laid next to some arrows. He blinked “Tony are you… upgrading everyone’s outfits?”

“No... Maybe. Look it’s no big deal, it’s what I do. Ouch” He still hadn’t looked at Steve, his hand pulling away as a small sparkle showed on the wing.

“I feel left out, I guess I can't…” Steve starting jokenly, because otherwise he would just say something stupid like _you’re amazing_.

“Oh,” Tony interrupted him without looking up “I’ve been improving your suit too, Jarvis is just finishing printing some of the designs.”

“You… what?”

Tony finally looked up. From up close the grease on his face was a little endearing. “Shouldn’t I have? I found the old designs of the Captain America outfit, I assume you would want it back. I made it cooler, of course, you don’t have to look like a theater kid all the time.”

“No it’s…” _very thoughtful_ , more than he would’ve expected from someone who prized himself for working alone. “It’s good. I’d love to look at it when it’s ready. When did you find time for all of these?”

“Mister Stark hasn’t slept in over 34 hours.” Answered Jarvis, startling him a bit.

Tony pulled a grimace “I will dismantle you, you traitor ass of a robot.”

“You need _sleep_ , Tony!”

“God, you sound like Bucky. I’m fine. I’ve done worse.”

“ _Should I_ call Bucky?”

Tony eyed him “If you don’t, I promise to sleep as soon as you leave. Won’t even set an alarm, just sleep until I wake.”

Steve pondered for a second “Deal. But at least eat something.”

“I had Dum-E bring me stuff every six hours, _mom_.”

“Who?”

Tony blinked, gesturing behind Steve. He turned to see a small claw wave at him. It was _adorable_. “Sorry, forgot to introduce you, Steve, that’s Dum-E, the worst robot around.”

Steve smiled, waving back at the robot “Tony, don’t be mean, I’m sure he is great.”

“That’s because he haven’t showered you with a fire extinguisher yet”

But despite his words, he smiled fondly at the claw-like robot for a second and Steve caught himself staring. “When did you build him?”

“Dum-E was my first robot. He was worth an award back in the day, _god,_ times have changed. Aunt Peggy laughed for days when I set him to wash the dishes and he broke them all against the sink.”

Steve’s mind shortcut for a second. He knew Tony’s godmother had been Peggy, he read about it, but it still came as a surprise to him to hear her name. “She was around often?”

“Who, Aunt Peggy? More than dad ever was.” He chuckled, before hesitating “Did you… The official story is that you two dated, but since I found out about Bucky I’ve been wondering. She talked a lot about you.”

Steve smiled softly “Oh no, we dated.”

“Oh. But you and Bucky…”

“She knew. They uh…” He felt his cheeks warm. He never _told_ anyone about it, there was no one to tell. No one in the forties would understand and in the 2010’s it always seemed too out of place to talk about. He didn’t even know how to explain, he never saw anything like what they did before. “They _shared_ , I think would be the term? I dated them both.”

Tony’s face was blank for a second, as if all the gears that were usually at full speed had stopped their tracks. “You what?”

Steve blushed harder, running a hand through his hair. “I know how it sounds, but it wasn’t cheating, we all…”

“No” Interrupted Tony “I’m not judging, I’m just surprised. I mean, Captain America was involved in a _whole ass_ sex escandall.”

“It was _not_ a sex escandal. Jesus, Tony.”

Tony laughed, it was a delightful sound, filling the room around them “So what, you just convided mister grumpy-pants to play nice?”

“It was Bucky’s idea, actually.”

Tony’s smile flickered. “Really? But he is gay, he didn’t…”

“No.” Steve interrupted “They were good friends, but that’s it. It was a war, he just didn’t want us to have any regrets.”

Tony nodded and smiled, but there was something beneath his eyes Steve couldn’t understand. “I must say, I thought Captain America would be much more uptide. I mean, first you flirt to get information, then I discover you dated around, I don’t know Steve, I might even start liking you.”

Steve laughed, but let the conversation die down as Tony went back to fixing Sam’s wings. But the entire time he was there he kept thinking about those words. Yeah, he might start liking him too.

* * *

On the fourth day Bucky didn’t come back to Steve’s place. There was something a little off about the appartement. Or maybe it was that it was _Steve’s,_ like he was somehow still an outsider. Maybe it was because Tony wasn’t there to bring coffee too in the late mornings. He kissed Steve goodbye at the door, ignoring the clear _go talk to him_ look Steve had given him before he climbed on his bike, and ran downstairs to the lab.

Tony was tinkering with something on his table, but Bucky’s eyes went straight to the Iron Man suit, standing tall and proud and finished, like a statue waiting to be awakened.

“You know, I never saw that thing work.” He heard himself thinking before he noticed.

Tony jumped on his feet, turning to look at Bucky in surprise “You’re here?”

“Yeah, I live here, remember?” _Technically_.

“Do you?”

Bucky growled, this was going anywhere “Are you _angry_ with me?”

“No. I’m… I’m not.”

“Then why did you test it without me?”

Tony’s face ficked “Ok, maybe I was angry, but in my defense I was left unsupervised.” Bucky had to hold back a laugh despite his frustration. “If you want to see it, I can show it to you.”

Bucky barely had time to answer and Tony was already on his feet, walking towards the armour. It shifted around him as soon as he touched it, opening and closing around his limbs in a smooth mechanical movement and Tony putting on a metal layer of clothing should _not_ be this sexy. Maybe it was better that he hadn’t seen it before.

“You know, usually when I get those looks I’m taking _off_ clothing, but I’m not one to kink shame, Buck-bear.”

He rolled his eyes, trying to pretend that this whole sentence didn’t set his heart and what was between his legs in a very similar path. “It looks good, I guess, but I want to see it working.”

Tony’s face was behind his Iron Man mask, but Bucky knew he smirked before he took off flying.

Papers flew and pieces of metal fell, but Bucky couldn’t even pretend to care, his eyes were fixed. Tony moved as if he was born for it, his body moving what seemed instinctively towards the garage door, leaving Bucky to run behind him. He did glady, whatever it took to watch Tony move around in that armour.

In the garden it was easier for him to move, which didn’t do anything good for Bucky’s heart. He watched as Tony used his hand blasters to stabilize himself, spinning around freely and lowering himself again. He didn’t know how long he was staring, but it didn’t feel like much before he landed in front of him, stepping out of the armor as soon as it hit the floor.

Not kissing Tony felt harder than breaking Hydra’s mind control. He was used to feeling like pulling Tony in, but this was what they worked for. He took a step back to avoid falling into his personal space, but he could keep his grim from his face “Tony that was _great_ ”

“I know.”

Tony leaned in closer, his smile wide on his face. Bucky could smell the adrenaline on him and it made him glow like never before. Tony had always been Iron man but this was like nothing he ever saw before… Actually, it was a little too close to Steve with his Shield on hand, about to do something reckless. Bucky felt his heart miss a few beats as he just stared at Tony, letting this sink in. He felt his body leaning closer too.

“I… I have to go.”

He didn’t let his mind process the hurt look that Tony flashed at him as he turned on his heels.

He was knocking on Steve’s door before he knew. Steve opened the door up with a worried frown “Everything ok? I thought you…”

Bucky let himself in, walking straight to the bedroom so he could lay face-down on the bed.

“Tony showed me the suit” He mumbled

“That’s good, isn’t it?” He felt Steve sat by his side

Bucky growled, turning so he was looking at him “He was... He was wonderful. It’s like he was born to do that.”

“Then what’s wrong?” Bucky raised an eyebrow, and Steve rolled his eyes “Honestly, you ran because he was _too pretty_?”

“No…”

Steve chuckled “I’ll make dinner, what do you want?”

* * *

Tony wanted to scream as he entered his house again in the suit. Not even the thrill of flying could make him feel any better about it. Fuck Bucky. What the fuck was that? All that _I’ll still be your best friend_ was bullshit, clearly. He hadn’t been home in days and the one time he stays he… what, leaves the second things get a little awkward? Steve had been a better friend than Bucky and they met last week.

Well, of course Steve _had_ to be there to help with the plan, but at least he talked to Tony, even if out of common courtesy.

And Bucky… what? Felt guilty for sleeping with Tony while the love of his life was still alive? Felt guilty for the weird break up between them? Or did he simply didn’t need Tony anymore and didn’t know how to let him down easily?

He got out of his suit, turning back to Sam’s wings. He had a new idea and he wanted to test if before the man asked for them back. Maybe he could get his mind out of Bucky.

He didn’t know how long he had been in the lab when Jarvis called.

“Obadiah is by the door, sir.”

Tony blood froze before he could talk some sense into his head. Obadiah didn’t know about anything, he probably was just coming by because they hadn’t talked since the Gala. He had skipped every Stark meeting for the past week, it was not unusual for him, but still Obadiah could be tired of his shit.

He took a deep breath, moving out of his lab “Jarvis, hide everything and keep an eye. Anything suspicious, you call Bucky.”

He meant to say Pepper, but the name escaped his lips without a second thought. _Fucking subcouscious_ , he thought, before opening the door.

Obadiah was standing with a smile on his lips and a bottle of scotch. Social visit then.

“Tony! I was worried you died, my boy, how are you doing?”

Tony smiled his best smile, stepping back to let the men in “Sorry, Obie, you know how I get after those parties.”

“But you left so early! Didn’t see you after you danced with that blond.”

Oh, he saw that. Tony smirked “Yeah, a pretty brunette caught my eye after and I just couldn’t say no. How are you doing?”

Obadiah grabbed a couple of glasses, pouring the scotch on both of them before handling one to Tony. “Same old, you know how it goes. I covered for you, but the board isn’t happy about your absences.”

Tony took a long sip “Pepper is going, thought.”

“It’s not the same, and you know it. That woman isn’t _you_ _._ ”

Tony bit down his answer. Pepper was better than him in every sense, but _especially_ when they were talking business. Tony was a scientist, an engineer and apparently a superhero wanna-be, but he wasn’t a businessman. He knew why Obadiah didn’t like her, why most of the board didn’t, but this wasn’t the time to pick a fight.

“I’ve been busy. Tell them to expect a new product soon, that should calm them down.”

Obadiah moved so he was closer to Tony. Too close. He could smell the alcohol on his breath as he spoke “C’mon, boy, I know you. What’s wrong?”

Tony tried not to roll his eyes as he felt Obadiah’s arm hug his shoulders “I’ve been stuck with a new idea. Nothing bad, I just can’t get it to work.”

“Oh, it’s a pity you will never get to.”

Wait. _What?_ Before Tony could react, he heard a high pitch on his ear, his body paralyzing instantly. Fuck, he knew.

“You remember this, right? You designed this, but it never got approved. Such a shame.” Obadiah waved the small controller in front of his eyes and Tony wished he could move just to punch him in the face “You know, I had hopes for you. When you managed to escape your captors I _hated_ you. They were very expensive to hire, you know? But You looked so focused, nothing like the stupid playboy I knew, so I thought _maybe_ , just maybe, you could he useful for once in your fucking life. I knew you were Ironman, of course, I had the taped of your stupid escape, saw what you build in there, wasn’t hard to connect the dots. So when Ironman showed up selling guns I was _proud_ , of course, I’d be better if I was in it, but I figure it was just a matter of time. I’m a patient man, you know that, Tones. When you called to make business that night at the gala, I was thrilled.”

“But you had to go and break my heart. You were _destroying_ my business, not building it. My partners were not happy about that. You always were useless, after all.” He took a breath, smiling at Tony “Except, of course, for this. This is huge.”

He landed his finger on Tony’s chest, right where the arc reactor laid, keeping Tony alive. Every inch of his mind was screaming, trying desperately to move, to run, to scream for help. But no one was coming, of course, and he was a good engineer, he knew he wouldn't be able to move until it was too late.

“You know how much people would pay for this? The _destructive_ power this kind of energy has? But of course you kept only to yourself. Selfish little brat. Well, you left me with no other choices. I really hate to get my hands dirty.”

He reached for his pocket, taking out a metal device that connected to the arc reactor, pulling it off with ease. Tony gasped, low and insignificant while Obadiah’s face was too close, his breath hot on his face. He held the reactor between them “It’s beautiful. I’m sure you know I’ll only sell it to the right buyer. They’ll know what to do with your legacy.”

He got up, still in Tony’s fixed view “It’s a shame. You had great potential.” He whispered, before turning his back and walking away.

Tony’s mind was racing. He had five point three minutes. Maybe less. The paralyzing effect was starting to run out, just barely. He could move his fingers, but that was it. He had to get up, down to his lab, and grab the old reactor. He had to.

He tried to move his leg. It barely flinched. Four minutes. Could he feel the shards entering his heart or was it just his numbing mind? It didn’t matter. He dropped on the floor. Good, this was good. He could crawl, right? No, it would take too long. He didn’t have the time.

He reached a hand and pushed himself up, falling again to the floor. He tried again. On the third time he could pull himself up, leaning heavily on the sofa. Ok. That was good. He took a step, his legs failing beneath him, but he got a grip on the sofa, managing to stay up. He took another, hand looking for something else for support. One more step. The elevator door to his lab was getting closer.

He fell inside the elevator. He heard the door close behind him as it moved him to his lab. Good, Jarvis understood his plan, he didn’t think he had any energy to spare with explanations.

The door opened and he tried to get up again, but his body was not responding. A mixture of the paralyzing weapon with dying, probably. Dying couldn’t be good to the body, he was sure. He could see the old reactor on his desk, being used to hold his mug. It wasn’t far. Crawling it was.

Crawling was harder than he thought. Harder than walking. Or maybe his arms didn’t have it in them to fight anymore. That was likely. He reached forwards, but his vision blurred. No. Not now. He was only a few feet away. He couldn’t… No. He reached again, but his arm didn’t respond, it just layed numbly by his side. He tried again, but he couldn’t even keep his eyes open, let alone lift a whole hand.

That was it. He was going to die. Out of breath and laying across the floor of his lab, two feet away from his salvation. Alone. It suited him.

“Tony!” A familiar voice shouted from somewhere. He couldn’t pinpoint where. Maybe he didn’t even hear it, maybe it was his mind… “Tony!”

No. definitely heard that. He felt someone turning his body around.. He tried opening his eyes, locking in blue eyes. Bucky. He opened his mouth “Arc…”

Bucky understood. He knew it. He closed his eyes again. “No. Don’t. Stay with me, you hear me? Open your eyes.”

He opened them. Bucky was by his side again, the sound of breaking glass was loud before he felt metal fingers touching his chest. He gasped when he connected the strings, breathing for what felt like the first time. “Thanks” He managed to say, in a low, hushed voice.

Bucky’s hands were still on his chest. “You can’t _die_ , you asshole. I need you.”

Tony almost died, but leave it to Bucky to break his heart. “I’m fine, you don’t have to lie to me.”

“Lie? Tony you almost… Fuck.”

Tony took another breath, closing his eyes. He needed water, he needed to check his pulse, he needed to…

He didn’t need anything, because his mind went blank as he felt Bucky’s lips on him. His treacherous mouth kissed back, as if he wasn’t still out of breath and kissing a taken man. But whatever, right, he almost died, what he had to lose? So he let his hands pull him closer (it felt like a good use of having the movement of his hands back), the familiar weight on his body more comforting than anything. He missed this. The way Bucky nibbled his lower lip, the metal hand touching his neck, the… well, everything about kissing Bucky Barnes, actually.

Bucky pulled back, face still too close for Tony to have coherent thinking. “I… you kissed me.”

He chuckled “Yeah, because I love you, you stupid genious.”

* * *

Bucky said it before he could stop himself. He was fairly sure the only thing stopping him shaking from the amount of adrenaline on his body was the super serum. Tony was alive, breathing and in one piece under his hands. Alive, alive, alive. His hand was laying on his neck and he could feel his pulse under his metallic fingers.

“You… what?”

The weight of what he said came crashing in like a train. “I love you.”

Tony blinked. “You… Love me?”

Maybe Bucky shouldn’t have said that. Shit. Ok he could… hide forever and pretend this never happened. Tony was alive, that’s all that mattered. He pulled back “I’m sorry, I…”

Tony sat upright, following Bucky “No, no, come back, I’m not complaining. It’s just I thought… Steve.”

There was a cough from Bucky’s behind “I’m… I’m fine with this.” Steve’s voice said, and both men turned to look at him in surprise. Bucky hadn’t heard him come in “I’m sorry to interrupt. It’s just… I wanted to make sure you were ok. You are… clearly… I’ll be upstairs, take your time.”

Steve nodded once before turning his back and getting in the elevator again. Bucky slowly turned his face to Tony, who at least had the decency to look as embarrassed as Bucky felt.

“I’m sorry about him. He was really worried, we both were.”

Tony cracked a smile “It’s fine. That actually clears things up a bit.”

“How?”

“Steve told me about your little arrangement with Peggy. I’m guessing you had a similar conversation about me?”

Bucky felt his face warmer. “Yeah, kind of. Look if you just like me as a friend, it’s fine, i get it, we can pretend this never happened and…”

Tony cut him off with a kiss and Bucky felt himself lighter, letting his hand tangle in him again. “Shut up, you’re thinking too much and that is coming from _me_.”

He chuckled a little, but his heart was still beating against his ears. “So you’re ok with dating me while I’m with Steve too?”

“Yeah, I almost died, I feel like making weird decisions with my life.” He hesitated, before asking “Plus I miss you.”

Bucky smiled at him, his heart still finding no rest, but this time for an entirely different feeling. He kissed him again,

“I miss you too.”

“We should go, Steve must’ve called everyone already.”

Bucky nodded, getting up and helping Tony by the hand and keeping his hold on it after. “Are you sure you’re ok?”

“Yeah. I… Jarvis ran a scan on me, let me know if I’m dying.”

“On it, sir.”

“See, problem solved.” Tony flashed him a smile, his hand still on Bucky’s. He started moving towards the elevator door, before adding with a low voice “The thing you said before. I… Me too.”

Bucky froze midway his step, his heart skipping yet another beat. _Oh_ , he didn’t want to push Tony to answer, but if this was true… Tony continued walking, clearly set on avoiding his face and Bucky smiled: only Tony would avoid to look in your eyes when telling the _truth_. So he pulled him by the arm, stopping him on his tracks.

“What did I say before?” He teased

Tony turned to look at him an adorable shade of red creeping in. “Shut up, you know what I’m talking about.”

“Do I? You might have to spell it out for me.”

“Are you really doing this?”

“Yes, I am.”

“You’re ridiculous. I hate this.” Tony sighed, his eyes avoiding Bucky’s for a second before they locked. “I love you, _Buckbear_.”

The nickname was said with sarcasm, as always, but Bucky couldn’t care less. “Was it that hard?”

“Yes. I hated it.”

Bucky knew Tony was holding back a smile, and he chuckled “I love you, too. Let’s go.”

When they reached the living room Steve was on a call with Sam and Natasha already, both clearly in their pajamas.

“If Obadiah knows, this changes things.” Said Natasha, before Tony appeared within camera view “Stark! Men of the hour, how is it like in the land of the dead?”

“Cold and unpleasant, I’m glad to be back. What’s the plan?”

“Jarvis showed me the footage, I hope that’s ok.” Said Steve “He said I had permission?”

He had? Hun, that’s new. When did Tony give Steve Jarvis’ access permission?

“Yeah, it’s fine. So you know everything. Obadiah knows it was me, which means Hydra probably knows too. Good thing, they think I’m dead. We can use that to our advantage. But that means moving the plan to as soon as possible. How’s your part doing, Natasha?”

“Fury has been working non-stop, we have a relatively large group on our side. Clint and I ran a background check on every single one, they seem clear. ”

“Speaking of him, where is Legolas?”

“He had a late night briefing with Fury. He thinks they are less conspicuous like that.” Answered Sam, rolling his eyes “But the plan is on tracks and will be ready to go in a couple of says, I’d say.”

Steve nodded, crossing his arms over his chest. “Ours is ready too, we just need to brief you in and run some details over with you guys. I wanted to wait until the next food cargo arrived, but this is only in a couple weeks.”

“We don’t have that time anymore. They think they won today, they will have their guard down.”

“What about Obadiah?” Asked Natasha “Do you think he has a suit like yours?”

Tony pulled a grimace, “Not like mine, but if he has access to Hydra’s scientist he will have a similar one, if he doesn’t already. But he is problem two, if we dismantle Hydra he will be alone, I can take him.”

“ _We_ can take him.” Corrected Steve, before Bucky could. “But I agree, we should focus on our current mission.”

“When does Bruce arrive?” Bucky asked

“He is currently travelling, but we don’t have means to communicate with him” Answered Tony, opening a screen in front of him. “We thought it would be better if he was untraceable, moving him out from India was risky enough. But according to my calculations he _should_ arrive between this afternoon and tomorrow night.”

“We can set to break in the day after tomorrow, then? We will catch Dr. Banner up and do our superhero thing?” Asked Sam

“Not a superhero thing.” Tony corrected automatically, making Bucky chuckle.

“You’re the one who gave us a cool nickname, _Iron Man_ , it’s too late.”

“I didn’t do anything, I created a fake company and _you_ decided you would be _The Avengers_.”

“We have three people with _actual superpowers,_ Stark, it’s a superhero team. Like Justice League. Oh, does that make me Hawkmen? I like it. You can be Batman.”

Bucky had the decency to hide his laugh, but Steve laughed freely, interrupting Tony as he started to protess. “It’s kinda true, Tony. Rich, with the whole _playboy_ act hiding a vigilante side.”

“He even has Robin over there.”

Bucky stopped smiling. “Really, you’re the bird man, but _I’m_ robin?”

“You’re right, I can be Night Wing. No one is sexier than Night Wing.”

“That’s _not the point_ of this meeting.” Interrupted Natasha “The plan, Steve and Tony, can you run it with us?”

They went back on track, with Tony opening the holographic map of the installation over the living room. Bucky took a step back, letting them both take their roles. Tony seemed better, but he knew he needed food and a good night of sleep, this was not his first near death experience, but they always take a toll on you. Despite that, he was still fairly ok, explaining the plan in full detail.

Steve was right behind him to catch whenever he slipped up. They were a… weird duo. Both clearly used to being the leader of whatever they were planning. Sometime during the explanation they talked over each other, staring for a full second in silence as if expecting the other to apologize. They even stopped explaining to bicker aggressively over a minor plan about door locks that Bucky honestly couldn’t care less.

But more of the time, they _fitted_ . Finishing each other's sentences and adding whatever the other forgot. It was also a stupid reckless plan that only those two could possibly come up with and thing _oh yeah that’s a normal plan that normal people would like_ . Honestly, its premise was: once they were in they would be able to get out, because _how hard could it be, really_? Bucky hated it. But it was a little mesmerizing to watch.

He could see a glimpse of a future with this weird Avengers thing where Tony and Steve shared leadership, late nights with planning and lab work and battlefields with tough calls to make. Maybe this _could_ work. He doubted that any plan could ever fail if those two were doing it together, reckless as they may be.

Maybe he was just stupid in love with both of them. That was likely.

Sam and Natasha added their own insights, but they kept it brief. They needed the whole team here to argue and they were all tired. It had been a long night. When it became clear to all of them that Tony was almost falling on his seat, they left the chat, leaving Steve, Bucky and Tony alone in the living room.

“I didn’t have time to check before, but are you ok, Tony?” Asked Steve trying to sound casual

“Jarvis?” Asked Tony

“Your vitals are good, sir, but this reactor is a little less stable. I’d recommend you change to a new one in a week.”

Tony shrugged “A week is enough time, start printing the structure for me, Jarvis, I’ll do it tomorrow.”

“As you wish sir.

Tony flashed a smile that did nothing to hide how tired he looked “See? Healthy as a horse.” He hesitated, before adding “But thank you for coming.”

“It was nothing” Steve smiled at him softly, before turning to Bucky “I take you’re sleeping here today?”

Bucky’s eyes flicked to Tony, who shrugged. He knew it meant it was up to him. But Tony almost died today and he had the opportunity to sleep tangled on him, hearing his breathing. “Yeah.”

“It’s fine, I’ll see you two tomorrow at lunch? We can run those feedback on our plan.”

“Sure.” Said Tony, before pulling a grimace “This is weird. Do you want to stay in the guest room? Or in Bucky’s, I’m sure he won’t mind. Wait, this is worse isn’t it? Yeah, it’s worse. Forget I said anything.”

Steve and Bucky laughed. “Thank you, but I think I’d rather be home. I’ll see you two tomorrow.”

Bucky saw he hesitated for a second before stepping in his personal space and giving him a soft kiss. It was weird, doing so with Tony in the room, but Bucky was never one to pass the chance of kissing Steve Rogers, so he kissed back.

“Enjoy the night.” Steve said as soon as they broke apart, adding a wink so Bucky couldn’t possibly ignore the subtext.

“Bite me, punk”

“It’s not my job tonight.” He was smiling as Bucky felt his face warm, the smug bastard, before he turned to Tony “You have some sleep and eat something. See you tomorrow.”

“Yes, mom.”

Steve smiled at them before letting himself out.

Being left alone with Tony sundely set a new anxiety with Bucky, which was ridiculous. They lived together for the past year, this was nothing they hadn’t done before. But before he thought he was living with a stupid unrequired crush and now he just kissed his boyfriend goodbye to stay with his… other boyfriend?

“That was very weird.” Said Tony, but he was smiling

“The me-kissing-Steve thing?”

“What? No, I get that seeing a little p.d.a comes with your whole package. It’s the _him suggesting we fuck_ thing.”

Bucky laughed, suddenly feeling stupid for the anxiety and stepping in his personal space. “Sorry, he is trying to be supportive.”

“I’m sure he _thinks_ he is. And I hate to break it to either of you, but I need twelve hours of sleep.” He completed that by laying his head on the curve of Bucky’s neck

“Let’s go then, I could use some extra hours myself.”

They started moving to Tony’s bedroom, Tony still laying a portion of his weight on Bucky.

“You’ve been _enjoying the night_ a little too much?” He teased, poking Bucky’s ribs

He laughed “I wish. Steve is a morning person.”

Tony gasped with horror. “And you still date him? Love really is blind.”

They reached the bed and Tony didn’t bother to do anything other than strip naked and slip under the covers. “Are you going to hog all the blankets again?”

“It’s likely.” Laughed Bucky, settling by his side and slipping his hand on his waist, pulling him closer. “Good night, doll.”

Tony made a happy noise, letting his body fit on Bucky’s curves “Night.”

Bucky took his time to sleep that night, letting himself feel the warmth of the body in front of him. He nuzzled his hair a few times and kissed his shoulders a couple others, and when he finally slept he had his metal hand over Tony’s arc, just in case.

* * *

Bruce arrived on Tony’s doorstep the day after. Steve was on battle mode when he received a call from Tony at 7 am because there was _no way_ Tony just got up this early, especially if Bucky was sleeping over. But he sounded more tired than hurt and warning him that Bruce had arrived.

When he arrived Bucky opened the door, pecking him softly, but he looked more asleep than anything.

“They are in the kitchen.”

Bruce was sitting at the kitchen Isle, eating a bowl of cereal as Tony poured some coffee on a mug, looking a little dead inside, his bed hair all over the place. Bucky took his seat by his side.

“Nice to meet you in person, Dr. Banner.”

The doctor flashed him a smile. “Oh, please, call me bruce. The pleasure is all mine. I did a PhDs on your serum, actually, so it really is fascinating to meet you.”

“I really hope this doesn’t mean you want to stick some needles on me.” Steve joked

Bruce laughed “Oh, no, I shifted to nuclear biophysics shortly after, don’t worry.”

Tony smiled, handling a mug to Steve as he said “He means he already pocked Bucky.”

Steve accepted the mug out of costume, a little surprised, but taking a sip of his coffee anyways. It was _absurdly_ sweet and he held back a smile as he sat by Bucky.

“Ok, listen, Barnes needed medical attention.” He defended himself, pointing at Tony with a spoon “You were the one who called me.”

“Well, you’re the one with a medical degree.”

“As if that stopped you before!”

Bucky chuckled at the conversation, turning to Steve “Banner is mad that Tony put the arc reactor on himself the first time around.”

“It was an open heart surgery! He could’ve died!”

“Aren’t you the one who exposed himself to gamma radiation?”

“Yeah, and look what happened!”

Steve took another sip of his coffee, stealing the blueberries on Bucky’s plate.

They caught him up on the plan easily, and Bruce suggested he waited to hulk-ou as their plan of escape. Breaking a hole on the wall was not the way Steve thought this plan would go, but it was not the worse idea.

“So, you learned how to summon the other guy on command?” Asked Tony running a hand through his hair and finally lowering most of the locks of his bed-hair.

“Yes, you could say that. But I can still lose control, if that happens just… run and hope Hydra is more interesting to beat up.”

“We’re not leaving you behind.” Said Steve

“Captain, I appreciate the sentiment, but you can’t stop Hulk once he sets his mind. We can only hope he finds a way out if things get ugly.”

Steve opened his mouth. There was no way they were leaving him behind, Hulk or not. He had seen footage of the green monster attacking, he understood that it wasn’t _easy,_ but...

“You won’t lose control so there will be no need for this plan B. Plan A if infalible.”

“Tony, you’re a scientist and an engineer, when has plan A worked, ever?”

“Fair, but you losing control leads to, like, plan M, we won’t even get to it. We trust you.”

Steve was a little surprised by the certainty in Tony’s voice, eyes locked on the men for a second before nodding along.

Bruce seemed to know when he lost a battle, finishing his cereal before adding. “So, tomorrow?”

Bucky slept over Steve this time and tomorrow arrived too soon. It was always like that, before battles: the night seemed to blink away. They met at a warehouse Stark owned, where Natasha parked a small quinjet that Fury had managed to run under Hydra’s radar.

“Just like old times” Said Bucky as they embarked the jet

Steve lifted an eyebrow at him “You and I remember the forties very differently”

But despite the joke, Steve _understood_ what Bucky meant. This _walking into battle_ felt too familiar, too much like holding his stance against the bullets. He reached for his bag instinctively, where his shield was being kept.

Tony was already inside, standing over Natasha on the bridge, connecting some wires to the controllers “...if I can just find the main warframe I could, Ouch!” He pulled back wincing and by Steve’s side Bucky laughed.

Tony turned to them with a smile.“You’re here! Good! I need to give you something.”

He walked towards them, leaving the panel opened behind him with a package on his hands, and Steve took a few steps to his side to give him and Bucky some space. But instead, Tony followed him, stopping inside of his personal space. “I forgot about it the last time you were home, I finished your suit! Should be good, let me know if it needs upgrades.”

Steve reached for what he was handling him and he recognized the deep shade of blue he used to wear. “Thanks, Tony, I’ll put it on.”

He turned on his heels to find some privacy to change his clothes, but he heard Bucky’s teasing voice say “Hello to you too, doll.”

Steve felt his heart tighten as he kept walking away, entering a small room to change. He knew part of it was jealousy, how could it not be? He missed so much of Bucky’s life while Tony was there for it. Worse, part of him wished _he_ had been the one to save Bucky, it was his job to have his back. But this was not what he wanted to focus on: it was a mixture of insecurities, fears and selfishness that he wanted nothing to do it.

Part of it, however, was very fascinated. He knew Bucky was happier with them both and he deserved, more than anyone, a little change of peace. It was absurdly charming to see him confront his feelings for Tony and he loved to see him in love, even when it wasn’t directed at him: it was like second hand excitement.

He focused on that as he finished suiting it up. It fitted him like a glove, but he shouldn’t be surprised: he knew Tony for about a week, but he already knew how much of a perfectionist he was on his projects.

Wearing it he could see the suit was a little darker than the dardeep blue he used to wear, the white star in the center a little less bright. There were no red and white stripes on his stomach, leaving it a little more stealth, which he appreciated. On his back there were some straps in leather and it was instinct that led him to take his shield from the bag and place it there. It fitted perfectly, staying in place without any friction.

He smiled as he finished putting his gloves. It was clear Tony had put a lot of thought into the suit, and he couldn’t help to find it adorable.

He left the room, stumbling across Sam as he walked back to the bridge. “Cap, you’re looking great. New outfit?

“Yeah, Tony’s idea.” Sam smirked at him, making him regret the words automatically. “Shut up.”

“Didn’t say anything, but your _boyfriends_ are really cozy over there.”

“I only date one of them, thank you very much.”

Sam snorted, following him. Tony was back working on the panel, connecting some wires while Bucky stood by his side, watching him softly. The sigh made him smile as he shifted his eyes to Natasha, talking to Clint and Bruce. They were all here.

“Are we ready to go, Tony?” Steve asked, taking a few steps towards the two

Both turned their heads at him and he felt himself blush under their gaze.

“Damn, Tony, you did a great job with this uniform”

“I always do a great job.” He snapped back, but his eyes lingered on Steve “Is it alright? I wanted it to be resistant, but not restrictive. It connects you to Jarvis, so we all can keep tabs on each other.”

“It’s great, thank you.”

“Don’t mention it.” He winked at him, before turning his back to the panel “I’m just making some adjustments here, but I’ll be done in a sec.”

Steve nodded, looking back to Bucky, who was still staring. “What?”

“Nothing, it’s just… you in this uniform, looking all Captain America again… it does feel like old times.”

They smiled at each other for a second, letting the weight of it sink, before Steve smiled “Let’s hope not _too much_ like old times. Last time I piloted a plane I sank it into the ocean.”

“You are not piloting anything” Said Tony, screwing the panel back on. “That’s what autopilots are for.”

They took off a few moments after, using the free time to run over the plan again. They arrived at the desert, hovering a few miles above the helicarrier, the facility only a few more miles east. He silently hoped that Tony had been able to trick their sensors with his modifications.

“Ok, I’ll disable the helicarrier while Jarvis runs the codes to open the door. It should be enough time for me to come back, be careful with any guards.”

Tony finished talking and turned to grab a suitcase. With his feet he opened it, and Steve was surprised to see it turn into his metal suit, building itself around his body. It was mesmerizing to watch as all the pieces involved him, opening and closing around his legs and arms. The last part was the head, covering his face with the familiar Iron Man mask, lighting his eyes. It was a complete picture now, nothing missing.

“Don’t do anything stupid.” Said Bucky

He didn’t respond. Instead he opened the door of a moving plane and jumped out.

Steve couldn’t stop staring as Tony flew towards the helicarrier. Even from a distance it was impossible _not to_ . The way he moved in the air, making the falling look graceful. He remembered when Bucky arrived home that night because Tony was _too pretty_ flying and, well, he understood it now. He could stare at him for hours.

By his side, Bucky laughed, as he could read his thoughts, and clapped his back “Told you.”

Steve felt his face warm, avoiding any gaze as he closed the door and turned back to the panel, ordering the plane to land near the entrance they were planning to use. The fence was guarded by four guards, they accounted for that. They would have to take them out before they could call for backup, but between them it shouldn’t be so hard.

“Iron Man, what's the status?” he asked, as soon as they landed

“No one saw me, I’m already looking at their control board.”

“Can you stop it?”

“Please, Cap, do you know me?”

He rolled his eyes, but his hands reached for the shield, ready for step 2. The weight of it felt right on his arm. He looked back from where Bruce was surveilling the hacking process.

“How are we doing?”

“Tony was right, they upgraded their defenses. I’m not an expert, but it seems like Jarvis can still break through.”

“I’m 86.7% certain, sir” Answered Jarvis “But I must warn you won’t have much time after I finish this, you might want to deal with the guards soon, captain”

Steve nodded, looking at Clint and Natasha “Can you take them all out fast?”

Natasha smirked, flexing her hands. Her first glowed in blue, connected by lines on her suit (Tony’s job, certainly). “Let’s go, Falcon.”

They approached them quickly, Clint shooting two arrows in a row with grace. Before the other two had time to think, Natasha was already by their side, knocking one with a flick of her right hand and the other with a gas that left from her left wrist.

“I’m done here” Said Tony, just in time “I can see an opening from here, I’ll meet you by the backdoor.”

Steve made a gesture for the rest to follow them, and by the time he reached the gate Jarvis had managed to open it for them.

“Remember, we have five minutes of uphand, after that, be careful.”

* * *

Tony landed discreetly only a few moments before the rest of the team arrived, looking over to Steve for confirmation before opening the door. They were right: this was empty. They slipped inside, Captain walking first in the long halfway as Tony analysed the heat maps. He showed the number 5 with his hands, pointing straight ahead. Five guards.

Bucky gestured to them, walking faster with the tranquilizer gun on his hand. They couldn't hear the shots, but Tony had seen Bucky in battle before: fast and unstoppable, those five guards wouldn’t even see him coming.

Just as expected, Bucky appeared on the corridor again, gesturing for them to follow. The ceiling was taller here, full of desks and tables, maybe a recreational room of sorts? Did Hydra offer lunch breaks and free time to their employees while they tortured a prisoner a few doors over?

“What’s the right door?” Asked Clint, an arrow already positioned on his bow.

It only took Jarvis one second to find the answer and Tony was already opening it. The numbers on his screen told him the cameras were still down, but he didn’t want to risk it. This corridor had a few doors around, probably leading to briefing rooms and labs, but they passed all quickly enough.

They took a turn, but someone bumped into Steve. It was a scientist, if his outfit was anything to go by, and he froze in place for half a second too long. Steve hit him with his shield, knocking him unconscious. They were creating a pile of bodies for Hydra to follow, but he assumed it was pretty obvious they were after whoever they kept locked. There was enough to worry about.

They arrived at where they knew the prisionair was being kept, without opening the door. Tony counted eight people working there, all armed. This might call attention. He gestured to the rest of the team, nodding along before Steve kicked the door out.

His shield hit the closest person instantly, another scientist, who had their back to the door working on something, and Clint shot from afar another two. Tony locked his blaster on the rest, but the guards were faster, dodging and shooting back. Natasha must’ve seen what Tony saw: him calling for backup. She ran fearless between the gunfight and knocked them out. It was fast, but not fast enough. They had been found.

“Barricade the doors” shouted Steve, helping them turn the tables, dropping computers and samples of blood on the floor. They seemed safe, safe enough for them to look at from behind the controllers.

It was not what Tony imagined.

Bucky was kept in a pod, frozen and unawake. There were protections, of course, but they were more about keeping people _out_ than keeping Bucky _in_.

This was the exact opposite.

There were about three rounds of the same glass he recognized could hold Hulk. _Three times a Hulk_ ? That couldn’t be good. All around the dome there were cables the size he would use in a factory, or maybe when connecting the mainframe of a _city_ , all somehow connecting to the chair where the prisoner was kept.

He was out, probably drugged by whatever was being injected in his veins. His arms and legs pinned down by metal to the bed. It looked the kind of set up they would use in a monster, maybe a giant.

But the person laying there was just a human. Or at least he _looked_ human. Sure he was _buff_ , maybe buffer than Steve, but he had seen bodybuilders look bigger. The long blonde hair gave him an extra layer of untretaning: it looked soft and well cared for, especially for a man locked as much as he was.

“Holy shit.” Whispered Natasha “Are you sure we _should_ break him out? Nothing good is kept under so much surveillance.”

“I would be.” answered Bruce back

“That could hold three of you” said Tony, before sighing and moving to the panel. It was centanly where they controlled whatever was happening: he could lower the rate of whatever was being injected in him, could monitor his heart. But no way to open the doors. “this will take longer than expected. They must keep the security around him in another room. It’s smart, no one section holds control over him. I need someone to find the security room.”

“I’ll go” offered Natasha

He nodded: it made sense. They already attracted enough attention as it is.

“Take Bucky and Sam, they are both stealth enough. Keep your ears to the con.” Added Steve

They nodded at them both, opening the other door again and slipping off.

“What do you need, Stark?” asked Clint

“You two need to back up the door for me, Bruce, I might need someone with a medical degree and someone who can hold him if he wakes up angry.”

Together they figured how the controls worked pretty quickly, Bruce was controlling the dosages carefully, trying not to wake him up in a rush.

“At least I’m pretty sure I _can’t_ kill him. With those levels he shouldn’t be alive.”

Tony chuckled, looking over from the electrical readings “You’re telling me. That guy is receiving a _million_ Joules a minute. That’s 10 Gigawatts, a _whole_ lightning bolt passing through his body every _minute._ Wait. No. he isn’t… Shit bruce he is _producing_ it.”

“What?”

“Look. He is… he is producing lighting. Shit. Hope you are all ready, ‘cause this might get wild. How are you doing Bucky?”

“Almost there.”

“We have guards incoming from here” Said Steve, opening the door. “I’ll hold them off, let me know when to retreat.”

“That’s a shitty idea” he said, and at the same time he heard Bucky saying it in their earpieces.

Steve laughed, and the sound of his laughing while his anxiety levels were so high did _something_ to Tony’s brain.

“I’ll be fine.” he said, and he tightened the hold on his shield, a wild, heavy glow on his eyes Tony recognized all too well.

It wasn’t that Tony _enjoyed_ getting beaten or even to beat someone, he didn’t. Really. But there was something exhilarating about the seconds before a fight, like he had a purpose, finally. He nodded at Steve, and he must’ve taken this as permission, because he slipped outside.

“Tony, he is waking up” Whispered Bruce, a little exasperated

He and Clint both turned to look at the prisonair. He was _moving_ , trying to break his chains, against all logic, because there were still thousands of watts running on his body and an inhuman amount of narcotics on his blood and _yet_.

“What, how?”

“I don’t know!”

Tony watched as Clint jumped from over the panel, getting closer to the dome.

“What the _fuck,_ Katniss? Come back!”

“Shut up.” He aimed an arrow at the man’s head, a suction arrow stopping at the first dome, sticking on it. It was enough to call the attention of the man inside, who lifted his body as much as he could to look at Clint. “Can you hear me? We’re getting you out.”

No response, of course not, that cage was the most soundproof thing Tony had ever seen. Clint signed instead, the words on his hands slow and deliberate. There is no way this…

The man smiled and nodded. Tony hesitated for a second before typing the code that would open the metal that was keeping him in place. He got up, but didn’t show any signs of violence. The smile on his face was still on, however, almost feral in midst of his long hair and beard.

 _“_ Shit, I can’t believe that worked.” Tony let escape from his lips “Steve, are you handling this well?”

“I have been better” his voice sounded tired, off, a gunshot was heard in the distance, the distinct sound of bullet hitting metal “Son of a bitch. How are things going, ‘Tasha?”

“I’m trying, there is a weird protection I can’t understand what it does. But I think I… there.”

There was a soft click, and suddenly a crash echoed.

Something flew over from Tony’s head, too fast for his sensors to register, breaking the wall behind him in its path as if it was nothing, reaching for the glasses that kept the man locked.

They shouldn’t hold a hulk anymore, with their defenses down, but they still shouldn’t be able to crack.

It cracked, all three of them falling in pieces on the floor leaving a whole from the side of whatever _the fuck_ that was. Tony thought for a second that was _it_ , Steve had lost a battle or maybe someone else was behind him holding a weapon more powerful than Tony ever built.

But instead the thing landed itself on the man’s hand, as if it was being guided. He had half a second to process that before a thunder broke inside the building.

No. Not thunder. _Lighting_ , coming from the outside and landing itself on the man.

“What the _fuck_ is that” Asked Clint, running back to behind the panels, as if it provided any safety from him.

Tony didn’t answer, watching the man walk towards them, stepping on the shards of broken glass. The thing is his hand, he realized now, was a hammer.

Maybe breaking him out _was_ a bad idea.

The man smiled, a soft, gracious smile that clashed his feral hair and beard. “I’m most grateful for the help, that was quite unpleasant. I’m Thor Odison, god of thunder.”

 _What the fuck._ “I’m… Tony Stark, nice to meet you.”

He seemed satisfied with the reply, turning to look at the other two, who were staring at Thor with the same confused look.

“Tony, is everything ok? We heard an explosion” Bucky said on his comm

“We’re fine. Can you meet us back here?”

“No way, there's too many guards.”

Tony eyed Thor, the hammer still on his hands, talking to Bruce “I think we can get to you, stay ready.” He switched his con “Hey Steve, can you come back? We need to pick the rest of them.”

Steve didn’t answer as much as kicked the door open closing it again with a door nearby. He looked like shit: sweat sticking his hair on his head and a little blood on his face and heavy breathing and he looked unbearably sexy like that.

Oh.

Not the right time to unpack that.

“Are you ok, there, Cap?”

“Yeah, you should’ve seen the other guy” and he _smirked_ at him, honestly “That’s the guy we are saving?”

His eyes trailed to the broken sharts behind him and Tony chuckled “Yeah, that’s uh… Thor, the god of thunder”

“The what?”

“I don’t know, either, but we need to get our boyfriend, so let's worry about that later.” The words flowed naturally out of his mouth as if the thought of Bucky being his boyfriend was solid on his mind instead of being more of _I made that up_ , _certainly_ “Hey Thor, we need a way out, but we need to pick our friends first. Can you help with that?”

The men smiled, this time more terrifying than adorable. Steve understood his _plan b_ without him saying, turning to the rest of them “Bruce, we might need someone to smash some things soon. Get ready for my signal.”

Bruce nodded, not looking nearly as excited for it as Thor.

They found Bucky pretty easily. Steve had done a good job at keeping the guards away and Thor’s hammer was apparently a very useful boomerang. They met, Tony locking eyes with Bucky (his Winter Soldier mask so familiar to him it was like looking at his face) before he nodded to Bruce.

Hulk was bigger than he remembered, but also more in control, which was good, considering the situation.

Bursting a way out from the second floor of the building was not what he had in mind as an escape plan, but he grabbed Clint’s arm before jumping out, letting him slowly fall to the floor. On his right, he saw Sam doing the same with Natasha. Steve and Bucky saw no problem about falling two stories down, which he was aware, but still was ridiculous to watch.

Thor, apparently, could also fly, and it was getting just ridiculous at this point.

When they left the building, however, they saw why it was so easy to get out of the building.

The outside was filled with guards, dozens of them. They stopped for a second, looking around, Tony’s mind trying to trail a plan to their quinjet.

“Sir” Said Jarvis “They found your jet, it will be impossible to fly on it.”

“Shit. They have the jet” he repeated.

“The helicarrier” suggested Steve, “It's our only chance.”

Tony cursed again, but he was right. “Sam, Thor, help me with aerial support, we need a path to the helicarrier.”

“Didn’t you break that?” Asked Clint, nocking an arrow on his bow

“Yes. Let’s go.”

They moved automatically. Most of the guards were blocking their way towards their jet, so they had a small advantage. That was, until their quinjets started trying to shoot them.

Thor took one down by himself with lighting, swinging his hammer at another one, as Tony and Sam worked their way on the third.

Bucky’s cry on the battlefield was loud enough to distract Tony, getting hit by something and almost losing flight stance. He turned to the ground, ignoring whatever had attacked them on air flying straight to where Bucky was holding fire. The agents seemed to recognize him, singling him out as the biggest threat.

Steve was on his way too, and Tony’s mouth was working before his mind had catched up. “Cap, shield up, now.”

Steve seemed to understand his cue, lifting the shield up at the right angle for Tony to blast it. The blast reflected on the metal, knocking out the agents around Bucky in a single blow.

“Are you ok, Bucky?”

“Yeah.” He sounded tired, but not hurt. “That was a pretty cool trick.”

Tony smiled from under his suit before flying back to help Sam.

They reached the helicarrier and Tony flew straight to the control panels

“I need a little help” He shouted at cons, looking at the mess he made

“Tell me what to do.” Steve answered back, already climbing his way to where tony was standing

“You will need to connect those, I broke the propellers too and I need to fix that unless you want to blow up.”

Steve pulled a grimace, “Tell me what to do.”

Tony nodded, flying towards the wing. He made quite the damage, but it was fixable “Connect the red cables first. Then you need to turn on the power on the left engine. Just the left!”

“How do I do that?”

Tony sighed, trying to place the metal parts in the right place. He shouted more instructions. “Try turning it on now!”

The motor roared, but the wing was still not moving. “Shit. Ok, Steve, I’ll need to disconnect those blue wires and connect them in those entrances on your left. But wait until my mark.”

He took a breath before entering inside the turbine, he would need to push with his thrusters so it would turn around manually, enough to kick start this.

“If you miss the timing I die, no pressure though.”

“What? Tony!”

He started pushing. It growled in complaint, but it started moving, slowly at first, but faster. Tony thought this would be an absurdly dumb death, between the propellers of a turbine that looked more like a huge ventilator.

He pushed himself out “Now.”

He knew Steve connected the wires because he felt the force trying to suck him inside. Shit. He forced his propulsors, barely getting out. “Great job, not let’s get the _fuck_ out.”

“Can anyone even _fly_ this?” Asked Bruce, hulking out as soon as he entered the plane.

“I can” Answered Natasha

They were in the air. There were still people shooting, but the helicarrier was _huge_ , it would take a lot of firepower to take it out and, well, the thunder god was apparently on their side, not Hydra’s.

“Shit. We made it.” Said Sam, once they were out of range.

Tony started laughing. This was _absolutely_ ridiculous, what they just did. People followed suit.

“Ok, _maybe_ this is some superhero shit.” He managed to say, getting out of his suit and letting it turn back in a case.

“Maybe?” Asked Clint, who was laying on the floor “We _superheroed_ the _shit_ out of this.”

“The Avengers, baby!” whistled Sam

Tony looked over at Bucky and Steve, who had sat down side by side on the floor, using each other for support. Both stared at him back, smiling, and Tony’s heartbeat had nothing to do with the adrenaline still on his veins. And, if he was being honest, had a lot to do with the fact that Steve was smiling at him too.

So he did what he did best: avoided the subject.

“Can we contact Fury? Did they manage to depose Pierce?” He asked, turning to Clint, who was still laying on the floor, phone on his hand

“I don’t know, he isn’t answering, but he did say he would lay low until the right moment.”

“So, what’s the next step? And what do we do with…” Sam trailed off, looking at Thor

“That’s a good question, hey Thor, care to fill the gaps for us? Where are you from?”

“Asgard.” Like everything that came out of that man’s mouth so far, it sounded like a crazy lie if not for the fact that they saw him summon lighting on command.

“Yeah, of course you are. Hey you don’t plan on murdering all of humanity, right?”

Thor laughed, as if Tony told an amazing joke “Oh, no, we don’t engage in wars with such inferior especies. But as soon as I fix the undeniable mess my brother left my people in, I plan to come back and get revenge on those who imprisoned me.”

Ok, this could be worse.

“Sounds good, we have similar plans, if you feel like joining” Laughed Sam “we could some _god of thunder_ ”

“It would be my honor to help, bird friend.”

On the floor Clint choked a little trying not to laugh.

“And how do you plan on getting back to… Asgard?” Asked Tony

“Oh, I’m just waiting for your warrior to land the plane, my friend Heindall should be able to open the gate for me now that I have my hammer back.”

“Sure.” _what the fuck_.

“Relax, Tony” Said Clint “We won, it’s ok, we can go home and sleep.”

“I would kill for a burger, actually” Said Steve, suddenly

“There’s a great place next to my house. We can land this thing on my property and go.”

“Sounds like a plan.” Answered Sam

Sitting on a table for eight while most of them were dressed for _war_ was… not the weird thing that the server had seen, if their unimpressed look was any indication. Which was fine by Tony, he didn’t want to deal with the press now, as he ate the greasiest hamburger he could order, his leg pressing against Bucky’s. The team (The _Avengers_ , apparently) ate quietly, the adrenaline finally rushing out. They had to stop Thor from spilling his drink on the floor, but apart from that it was quiet. Nice. Almost normal.

Then they watched Thor disappear in a rainbow light at an empty parking lot and it got weird again.

“You guys think he is an actual god?” asked Bruce, as they all stared at where he had been seconds ago

“My money is still on alien” Tony answered

“Yeah, alien sounds likelly.”

There was a beat of silence before he added. “So, we regroup at my place tomorrow at noon?”

* * *

Steve was not sure how he ended up in Tony’s place instead of his own apartment. He needed a shower and twelve hours of sleep. But he was following Bucky and Bucky was apparently thinking about going to Tony’s. Which made sense, not only he lived there too, Steve was sure they had better water pressure.

As soon as they arrived, Bucky pulled Tony to a kiss before shouting dibs on the main shower and disappearing on the elevator, leaving them both alone.

“Do you want to take a shower too? You can use Bucky’s bathroom, he won’t mind.”

“No I…” _I’ll be home soon,_ he wanted to say, but he suddenly realized he didn’t know if that was true. Would Bucky want to stay here, sleep with Tony after the mission? Or was that just a quick shower-and-clean-shirt thing, and then he would leave with Steve back to the apartment? “I’ll wait.”

Tony didn’t look like the same just a few hours ago on the battlefield. That Tony was confident and sure on his feet and suddenly he looked… off. He was probably wondering the same thing, who would sleep alone tonight?

“I’ll go grab something to drink, do you want something?”

Steve nodded, walking with him to the kitchen in an awkward silence that was unusual between them ever since he started dropping by to work on the plan. Arguing endless over minor details was better than this. He watched as Tony filled the coffee machine and grabbed two mugs.

“Look, I think we should talk.” He blurred before he even thought the words.

Tony didn’t look at him, putting the mugs on the isle in front of them “Yeah? About what?”

“Playing dumb doesn’t suit you. We can’t make this weird.”

Tony took a breath. “I’m sharing a boyfriend with Captain America and that isn’t even the weirder thing of my _week_.”

Steve held back a laugh. “C’mon, talk to me.”

He hesitated, pouring coffee on both mugs before grabbing the sugar for Steve. “You know, with the amount of sugar you drink on those things you’re lucky you can’t be diabetic.”

Steve laughed, getting the mug from Tony “My mom was, Bucky was always on my neck to make sure I didn’t develop _another_ health issue. I was in enough trouble as it was.”

Tony smiled from under his mug. “I would die to see tiny Steve Rogers arguing about sugar.”

“Oh I was very feral, I would bite if things got dirty” The joke fell light on his lips, the air between them seemed less dense. He took another sip of his coffee before adding “You know, I was so surprised that Bucky liked me back, I couldn’t believe it. I was just this scrappy kid and he was… well, the wet american dream.” He chuckled at that “ _Very_ popular with the girls at the time.”

Tony laughed too, but let the silence fill the kitchen before talking again “Bucky and I always sleep together after missions. Even when we didn’t have sex. I think we both enjoyed the safety of it.”

Steve nodded. He understood that, because that’s what he _wanted_ too. He wanted to sleep with his head buried in his back, breathing his warmth, knowing that they got out. “So… you want this night with him?”

“God, you sound like a divorced parent. _Who shall keep the kid on weekdays_?”

Steve laughed “Ok, smartass, what’s your plan?”

“I don’t know. Let him decide?”

“Like he could, he will sleep on the sofa out of spite.” Tony didn’t seem to find his joke funny, however, instead lifting an eyebrow at him “What?”

“C’mon, Steve, he will choose you. It’s fine, I get him on the weekends.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I’m not dumb, Steve. He might like me, but you? You’re _it_ for him, no questions asked.”

“You can’t possibly think that.”

“I _know_ that. It’s fine, I entered this relationship with eyes open.”

Steve put his mug down, stepping closer so Tony had no other option but to look at him in the eyes. “If he _could_ choose, he would have. The way he looks at you? I’ve never seen him look at anyone like that. You’re amazing, Tony, and Bucky sees that too.

 _Shit_ , was that too personal? The _too_ slipped up before he could hold back, sounding louder than any other word he said. Tony seemed to have heard it too, his mouth hanging open, the space between them suddely too small and not small enough.

Tony stepped back. “Well, I had to work very hard to seduce him, not everyone has your whole _nice arms soft smile_ thing.”

Steve laughed, letting the tension off his shoulders. This was a conversation for Bucky and not him. “I thought you said _you_ had the charming smile.”

“Yeah, that’s fair, I do.” And he flashed a smile, a little crooked to one side, almost a smirk. It was very similar to the ones he had seen on magazine covers, except this one reached his eyes. Steve felt his insides moving in him, the fuzzy feeling not exactly unwelcome.

“Are you trying it at _me_? C’mon Tony, I’m not that easy.”

Steve thought it was funny, referencing the thing Tony had said to him at the gala, he smiled at Tony back, trying to be as charming as he had been second ago. It took him a second too late to realize he had shifted his expression. Too late, because Tony closed the gap between them.

Steve froze in place, because _that couldn’t be happening_ , not with Tony, not in his kitchen while he was still in the captain america gear Tony made him and while Bucky was taking a shower upstairs

Tony took a step backback, his eyes large “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have… I don’t know why I…”

Listening to Tony apologise for kissing him was enough for him to regain control of his body and pull him in, crashing their lips together again. He kissed back, pulling him closer by the hair and Steve’s mind was not exactly working as it was running _we’re kissing_ over and over and over. Because Bucky might be the thing he was aching for ever since he woke up in this century, but Tony fitted a whole new space he never knew needed fittig. It clicked for him at first at the party, the adrenaline on his veins as they danced, again at the lab, blue lights reflecting on his dark eyes as he stared at his holograms, and it clicked now, hands around his waist.

He didn’t know what Tony was thinking - and neither was he worrying about that now, but he seemed to be at the very least enjoying the kiss, capturing his lower lips between his teeth. Steve moaned softly, his hands tightened on Tony, lifting him effortlessly and manhandling him so he was sitting on the kitchen isle, positioning himself between his legs. Tony let out a small gasp when lifted, but instead of complaining he pulled him closer with his legs, locking them behind Steve’s back.

* * *

Bucky took his time under the shower, but got dressed quickly, wondering if it was really a good idea to leave Tony and Steve alone. The two were clearly friends, but he had seen their petty arguing at Tony’s lab and he didn’t want to see what would happen if they actually fought each other. But they had no reason to fight. To talk, surely, but fight?

They weren’t in the living room, so he took the obvious route to the kitchen, towel on his hands as he dried his hair. “Hey, you can go shower if…”

He stopped on his tracks, staring at the scene before him. Tony and Steve pulled apart quickly, but there was no denying what they had been doing, even without Steve’s obvious blushing face and messy hair, considering Tony was still sitting at the isle, legs spread open to fit Steve. Maybe leaving them alone had been a _great_ idea.

“I was… not expecting this.” He said

Steve got even redder, by his side Tony pulled a grimace, looking embarrassed for being caught, but not guilty about it

“Me neither, to be honest.”

Bucky lifted an eyebrow at both of them, chuckling lightly “Oh, don’t get me wrong, I was expecting you to get around it _eventually_ , just thought it would take longer.”

Steve rolled his eyes “You talked to Sam, didn’t you?”

“You talked to Sam about me?” Said Tony, still on the isle, opening a grin “I’m flattered.”

“No I… Well, Sam was teasing about the time we spent together.”

“I didn’t talk to him, but anyone with eyes could see the way you looked at Tony when he got in the iron man suit.”

Tony seemed delighted by that information, “You think I look hot in the suit?”

Bucky approached him, settling himself between his legs where Steve had been, his hands laying open on his thighs.

“To be fair on Steve, you look _very_ sexy in the suit, doll.” He tilted his head, opening the view for Steve to watch as he kissed his neck, right under the ear.

Tony shifted his head to capture his lips, kissing him just like he had been kissing Steve moments ago. The thought sent a shiver through his spine and he tightened his grip on his hands, letting his thumb trail the inside of his leg. Tony's breath stuck on his throat and he sped his legs wider.

Doing so in front of Steve unlocked s _omething_ between them and Bucky was very much into the idea of figuring out what. He pulled back, walking a few steps back so he could look at them both

“I know I might be a little biased, but, if you two want, we could take this upstairs.”

Tony smirked instantly, the kind of dirty smile he saved for when he was naked, under Bucky’s weight, and yet ready to challenge him into something as if he held any power to do so. “What, Captain America in a threesome? How _scandalous_.”

Steve blushed harder, shifting his eyes away from Tony’s face “Can you not?”

“Why? You’re kinda sexy when you blush.”

Steve hesitated a full second before taking two large steps and kissing Tony again, harder than when Bucky first walked in. They kissed like they fought: they put their whole body in it, and he knew being on the receiving end of either of those kissed was intoxicating. Watching them kiss, however, was just as bad, he could barely tear his eyes away.

But he could do a lot more than watching, fascinating and sexy as it was, moving himself closer, his mouth trailing a few kisses on Steve’s neck before he whispered in his ear “Is that a yes?”

Instead of answering, Steve pulled away from Tony's mouth to kiss Bucky. Kissing Steve now felt different than any other time. Maybe it was the lingering taste of bitter coffee he knew to be Tony's, maybe it was the overarching (but not unwelcome) sensation of being watched or the fact that Steve's hands were still on Tony's thighs instead of anywhere near his body. Different or not, he wanted more.

"Upstairs" whispered Bucky against Steve's lips.

He nodded, effortlessly picking Tony up. He let a small moan, and Bucky smiled as the other man hid his face on Steve's neck.

"Are you _blushing_ , Stark?" Steve asked, clearly amused

"No."

Bucky chuckled "Tony loves being manhandled, isn't that right, doll?"

"Shut up."

"Then I guess he is lucky he found two supersoldiers" Steve moved Tony's weight so he was holding him with one hand, using the other one to hold his face, turning it to him. "You look sexy when you blush, too"

"I hate both of you."

"Uh, funny, because we were moving to your bed, but I guess we can…"

Tony didn't let him finish the sentence, kissing him for a moment before pulling as far as he could, still on Steve's arms, staring into his eyes "Steve, I hope you know that I really want either you or Bucky to fuck me and also" he paused at that, letting a satisfying grin on his face as he watched red color Steve's face again "that three can play this game."

The underlining challenge or the direct dirty talking was not new to Bucky, but it still sent an electric bolt through his body. Steve seemed to be under the same effect, carrying Tony to the elevator and only letting him go when they were at his bed.

Bucky climbed over Tony, pressing him against the familiar mattresses, fingers running more freely over his torso. Tony lifted his head slightly so he could capture his lips, opening his mouth easily beneath his weight, his hand running over his hair, pulling it back and separating their mouths again.

"I want to see you two kiss" he said it all in one breath, his lips redder from the kissing.

Bucky smirked, sitting back on Tony's lap and turning to Steve, still in his stupid hot uniform. He met him halfway, and this too felt both familiar and uncharted, the trail from Steve's mouth to his neck and collarbone. He bit, strong enough that in a normal human would leave a mark, enjoying the sound it drew out of Steve.

He felt Tony's hands on his legs, pressing on the inside of his thighs and toying his waistband, too aware he was purposely avoiding the growing volume on his pants. He let his own hands wander around Steve, looking for a way to touch skin under the uniform.

"Tony, you made those impossible to take off."

They all chuckled, and a tension he hadn't even paid attention to seemed to dissipate. "Yes, but have you seen how good his ass looks in this?"

“You make a good point, but have you seen his ass _without it?_ ”

Steve rolled his eyes, moving himself away and getting up from the bed “I get the message, I’ll take it off”

From under him Tony propped himself on his elbows, trying to get a better view. Steve was obviously making the conscious effort of not looking at either of them, taking off his suit and staying only in underwear. The volume evident under it. “Happy?”

“Very.” Answered Tony

Bucky agreed, but seeing Steve naked was not enough, not even by a mile, and he pulled him back to the bed, careless about his superhero strength. Touching him, however, was so much better. His metal hand travelling the whole path of his back lightly, enjoying the tingling sensation on the tips of his fingers. He tipped his head, kissing the curve of Steve’s neck, liking the trail to his chest, letting his tongue circle his niple before nibbling it softly.

He could feel Tony shifting from underneath him and he pulled back automatically, ignoring Steve’s soft sight. “Where do you think you’re going?”

Tony smirked, “Do you plan on keeping him all to yourself?”

Bucky lowered himself, laying his hand on Tony’s chest, next his new arc reactor, pressing his weight to lock him in place. When he spoke, his mouth was barely touching Tony’s “As a matter of fact, yes. You, however, I plan on sharing.” He let his head dip towards his ear, bitting his earlobe before whispering “I remember you saying you _really wanted us to fuck you_ , or did I misheard?”

He shifted his eyes to Steve to see if he was following suit, but he had already lowered himself, kissing Tony again. His hands searched for the hem of his shirt, tugging it slightly letting his hands run underneath it. Tony moaned under his mouth as Steve did something with his hands and Bucky was suddenly very, very tired of all those clothes.

He kissed Steve's neck again, whispering for him to move just enough so they could pull Tony’s shirt over his head.

This was _better_ , even if there were still too much pants on the way.

Steve resumed his kisses, hands now more free to wander over Tony’s naked torso. He was notably avoiding the arc reactor scars - understandable, considering the circumstances. But Bucky did not have such reservations, moving so he could kiss right next to the arc reactor.

Tony’s soft moans being muffled by Steve’s mouth might just be Bucky’s favorite sound.

He licked again, before trailing down to the hem of his pants, biting the sensible skin and earning another soft growl. In this position he could see Tony’s hands reaching for Steve’s ass, and _oh_ , maybe Steve’s moans muffled by Tony’s mouth was his favorite sound, it was a really hard pick.

He let his hands trail the beginning of Tony’s pants, moving deliberately slowly as Tony’s muscles clenched under him, either from his teasings or Steve’s mouth on his neck. He pulled Tony's pant’s down, leaving him too only in underwear. His dick was poking through them, a delicious tentation for his mouth.

“Aren’t you a little overdressed?” Asked Steve, unaware of his thoughts, sitting on his legs so he was closer to Bucky’s mouth.

He kissed him, open mouthed and warm, hands to whom he didn’t recognize pulling his clean shirt off his body. Tony had sat too, he could sense the dip on the bed, his mouth moving to his neck as Steve bit his lower lip, sucking it lightly before dipping back in the kiss. Tony bit too, hard and right under Bucky’s ear and he made no effort to hold back the moan.

Steve’s lips were no longer on his, but on his chest, licking the areola of his nipple. He parted his lips, letting another soft moan, but Tony was faster, kissing him too as Steve’s mouth bit down softly. There was a hand on his hair pulling it just right and a hand on his thigh and a hand on his metal arm, holdly it strongly. It was almost too much, the pressure of the clothes around his dick suddenly feeling like too much.

He slipped off the kisses, taking a deep breath and pulling his pants out and underwear out all together. His hard dick was warm against his stomach. “Happy?”

Instead of answering, Steve pushed him down on the bed with enough strength to pin him down, his knee right between his legs. Bucky moaned at the pressure, pushing his hips closer, looking for the friction, but there was nothing there anymore. Instead Steve was in all fours, lowering himself to kiss the inside of his thighs.

He moaned as Steve bit lightly the sensitive skin, his nose touching lightly at the base of his dick.

“Tease” he whispered, being rewarded by another soft bite on his perineum

Tony’s mouth found its way to his mouth about the same time Steve decided to lick the top of his dick. He moaned, loud this time, and louder again when he felt his mouth wrap around him, his tongue teasing its head as he lowered himself. Tony was still kissing him, his hands on his nipples, twisting them, and it was too much all over again.

It didn’t take much as he laced his human hand on Steve’s hair, his metallic hand holding Tony’s arm, pulling Steve lower and lower until he could feel the back of his through, for him to come. Steve thigned his hold, sucking him a little harder and he tightened his grip, a cry loud on his lips. He could feel Steve swallowing around his dick, and there wasn’t much more to think about.

“Ouch!” Tony scream brought him back to the bed.

Bucky noticed his metal hand was holding Tony’s arm still, the grip tighter than the one on Steve’s hair. He let both go.

“Sorry, doll, got a little carried away.”

Tony laughed, obviously not preoccupied with the red, hand-shaped mark on his arm. “It’s fine, like when you lose control.”

Steve blocked any answer he could give, grabbing Tony’s face and manhandling him so he was close enough to kiss him. Bucky’s breath got caught on his throat, knowing Tony was tasting him on Steve's tongue.

He broke the kiss, staring for a second at Bucky. Steve’s blue eyes were almost entirely black, arousal obvious on his face, lips red from sucking his dick and Bucky wanted to kiss him, taste himself on him too. But instead Steve turned to Tony’s ear, biting his lobe and whispering on his ear low enough that, if now for his enhanced listening, he would’ve missed it. “Were you serious about wanting me to fuck you?”

Tony moaned at the words, but his eyes flashed to Bucky, as if for permission. Bucky smiled at him, the best his post-orgasm mind could come up with that signified _watching Steve fuck you senseless would be the best thing possible_. Tony seemed to get it, though, because he bit Steve’s lower lip (hard, if his reaction was anything to go by), and whispered “There’s lube on the drawer.”

The seconds it took for him to find the bottle were enough for Bucky to regain some of his senses, pushing Tony on his back again as he tried to take out his underwear.

His dick was hard, the top wet from his own pre-come: an invitation Bucky just couldn't say no to. He let his nails drag around his inter-tight, enjoying as Tony wriggled from the sensation, before lowering his head and taking him with his mouth.

Bucky was, technically, used to the taste of his cock on his mouth, he knew how to twist this tongue just right over the skin to make Tony squirm and moan. But he felt Steve’s hand on his head, tangling around his hair and controlling the speed of the movement and he couldn’t help but let him take control, his moans muffled as he was pushed deeper, barely audible over Tony’s.

“You two need to stop this or I won’t last” Tony managed to say between breaths. Both men stopped automatically, Bucky letting his dick slip off his mouth slowly “Sorry, but some of us are over forty and don’t have the supersoldier estamina”

His eyes glowed at Bucky, whose dick was getting hard again between his legs

“Nothing to apologize for” Said Steve back, before biting his collar bone softly. When he spoke again, his voice was deeper, lower, a little too much like Captain America “Turn around, will you?”

Bucky saw Tony shiver and he smiled. He had been on the receiving end of that voice too many times and it was almost impossible not to comply. Said and done, Tony flipped around, his back a little arched so to give better access to his ass.

“Good. Now relax, I’ll do the rest” Said Steve on that voice again.

Bucky moved so Steve could take his place, and position himself so he could see Tony’s face. Steve lowered his mouth, biting him lightly before moving to his asshole, face buried between Tony’s cheeks. Bucky had been on the receiving end of that too many times, too, and if Tony’s moans were anything to go by he was enjoying it just as much as he did.

He could see it on Tony’s face when Steve put his first finger, his lips parting lightly, the breath caught on his throat.

“You ok?”

Tony moaned first before answering “Yes, more.”

He didn’t resist kissing him, with his lips open, moving his mouth to his shoulders and back as Steve put his second finger. He must’ve moved them on the right spot, because Tony’s whole body reacted as if shocked. “I take it, it's going well” Bucky half-joked, before biting his lobe lightly.

“Would be better if I was being fucked instead of teased.”

Steve put his third finger in, laughing softly as Tony arched his back harder, giving him better access yet. “Are you in a hurry?”

“Yes, actually, if I don’t feel you inside me I might just die.”

“Drama queen.” Chuckled Bucky, tugging on his hair lightly just to get the soft growl as a reaction

“Here lies Tony Stark, genius, playboy, killed by Captain America, who was too slow to fuck him.”

Steve laughed again, taking out his fingers and lowering his weight on his back. “Are you sure?”

“Do I look like I’m joking?” He bit back, but Steve kissed his shoulder instead, full mouth. “Yes, I’m sure.”

“Good”

Steve’s voice tone echoed on Bucky and went straight to his dick, he was not sure how Tony was surviving being right under him, having his dick touch his entrance without friction. He straightened his back again, touching himself with his lubed hand while he arranged himself, but suddenly he stopped on his tracks, as if remembering something.

“Are you ok?” Asked Bucky

Steve nodded, moving himself so he could see Tony's face. “I can’t get STDs, but if you want me to grab a condom….”

Tony laughed. “I know, you're not my first supersoldier. I prefer without, but if you want to…”

“No, I like this way better, I just wanted to ask.”

Bucky chuckled, because this was _such a Steve thing_ , but he didn’t let it distract him much. He wanted to see Tony’s face while Steve fucked him and he was not about to miss that.

He was not disappointed, as Steve slowly entered Tony, his face shifted, his pupils even more dilated, his lips parted slightly. Maybe another day he could fuck Tony’s mouth while Steve fucked him, it was centanly a nice thought, but today he wanted to watch.

“Are you…” Started Steve, completely still with his dick buried on his ass, but Tony interrupted him

“If you don’t move now I _swear to god_.”

Steve chuckled, but he started pounding against Tony. At every movement, Tony’s moans grew louder, mixing with Steve’s and the sound of bodys clashing in a weird symphony. It started relatively slow, but as it progressed Steve seemed to forget he was trying to be careful, his hands holding Tony by the hips so hard even Bucky could see the marks from afar.

Tony wasn’t complaining though, and every couple of moans was accompanied by _“There”_ or “ _Harder”_. He knew by experience Tony enjoyed his markings too, so he wasn’t particularly worried.

He drew a hand to his dick without noticing, pumping it softly as Steve flipped Tony on his back, still inside him, holding him down with one arm, the other moving to touch his dick. He kept fucking him, and Bucky caught himself moving his hand at the same rhythm, steady but fast, faster.

He came before Tony did, but just for a couple of seconds. Tony’s come was accompanied by a loud cry, white fluid resting on his chest and stomach as Steve kept fucking him, stronger than before, faster. He knew Steve reached orgarms before he saw his come, as he threw his head back and reached for the closest thing of Bucky he could reach (his leg), nails biting hard on his skin.

He pulled out before dropping his weight by Tony’s side, all three heavy breathing felling the silence for a moment.

Tony was the first to say something, stretching his back on the bed “God, if you two want to keep going, knock yourselves out, I’m pretty sure I could sleep through anything right now.”

Bucky laughed, laying himself on his other side, kissing the corner of his lips “I think we are fine, doll. But you really should shower.”

“But I’m tired.”

“You’re also covered in come.”

Tony hid his face on his shoulders for a second “Fine. Shower. But then mister _morning person_ over there is forbidden to wake me up before noon.”

Steve laughed at that, rolling on his side so he could look at them. “I’m not sure _I_ will want to get up early. It’s been… a long day.”

Tony laughed. “Oh _god_ I can’t believe we broke a god out of jail and that’s not even the most _exciting_ part of my day. Anyways, shower. Are you two coming?”

Steve lifted an eyebrow as Tony got up “Can we fit all three in your shower?”

Bucky actually laughed “You can fit our whole superhero team in that shower.”

“We barely finished a threesome and you’re already thinking about an orgy? Buckybear, didn’t know you had that in you.”

Bucky threw a pillow at Tony, who gracefully avoided it, before getting up too. He could use another shower, and he definitely could use staring at both their naked bodies a few more minutes. Steve followed suit.

* * *

Steve thought Bucky was exaggerating, but Tony’s shower was _gigant_ . Maybe they couldn't fit the whole team here, but just barely. Despite the space, showering was almost… domestic. The three of them were still in the post orgarsm-bliss, lazyly moving around each other and sharing very few words, but Bucky kissed Tony as they changed places under the water (which was unnecessary, because there was _so much space_ where water could come from) and Steve recognized Tony’s scent on their shared shampoo.

He knew he had to think about this. Whatever this was. Talk about it (properly, this time, instead of ending up kissing someone over the kitchen isle). But the water was warm and it was still night outside and it was much easier to pull Tony for a kiss as he reached over him for the soap.

When they fell in bed again, clean and still naked, it was too easy to lace his hands around Tony. He didn’t think twice about the fact that, logically, Bucky was supposed to be the one at the center of this new type of cuddling. Tony settled against his chest and pulled Bucky closer on the other side, and Steve could reach for Bucky from over Tony and falling asleep felt easy too.

Waking up was harder, because very little things would make him want to get up and out of this little arrangement. It was warm, and Tony’s hair was tingling his cheek softly and he had his legs tangled with more legs than he cared to count. Tony was still asleep when he opened his eyes, but Bucky was already awake, soft eyes looking at both of them.

“Weren’t you the one who told me it was rude to stare?” whispered Steve

“Morning to you too, babe.” He joked, low enough that without his super hearing he might not have heard it “It’s hard not to stare, you two are quite the picture.”

Steve smiled softly, eyes flickering to look at Tony, still asleep under his arms “He is quite the picture.”

Bucky chucked in agreement, but stayed silent for a beat too long before saying “What is this for you? Maybe we should’ve talked before we jumped in bed.”

“When have we ever _not_ chosen the reckless option?” He joked lightly, letting himself stare at Tony again for a few moments “But… I don't know. I like him. A lot. I can see why you love him, too.”

“Well, mouthy brunettes _seem_ to be your type.”

He laughed again. “Shut up. But… I don’t know, what _could_ this be? Does Tony even want more?”

“Stop discussing me while I’m asleep.” murmured Tony, eyes still close.

“Oh, sorry, didn’t mean to wake you. It _is_ after noon, though.”

“Still early.”Tony chuckled a little, opening his eyes slowly. The movement made Steve’s heart miss a beat almost instantly “But I heard you talking. I’m… I’m very bad at talking about feelings, but… Well, for the first night ever I slept with Bucky and _didn’t_ wake up cold, so I think maybe we should, you know, keep this, or whatever.”

Steve chuckled. “You want to keep me as a blanket?”

“Yes.”

“You two are not… Look I don’t want to make it seem like you _have_ to do this because of me.” Bucky spoke a little more seriously now

Something clicked for Steve, and he felt _so stupid_ for only thinking about it now. He sat up, taking his arm from under Tony’s head a little too fast so he could look properly at both of them. “Tony, you aren’t just doing this because you think Bucky loves me more right?”

“You think _what?”_

Tony growled, turning to hide his face on the pillow. “No. I… Shit I have a bunch of issues, blame it on my dad or whatever. But I did this because I like you, Steve, and I want to see where it goes, if I can.”

Steve melted again, laying again so he could move his face out of the pillow and kiss him softly. “I’d love that. But we will work on your self esteem issues.”

Bucky shifted closer too, touching Tony’s face lightly. “And I love you, you stupid ass.”

They kissed again, lazyly touching on the bed for a few minutes. It felt new, even if he dated Bucky since before he could remember.

“Oh, we have _a meeting_ today” Growled Tony suddenly “Can’t we have _peace_

“And we have your crazy business partner still after you” remembered Bucky

“And we _might_ need to build a new Shield from scratch.” completed Steve

“Anything else to add to my agenda? Save the world from invading aliens, maybe?”

“I wouldn’t put past us, to be honest.”

Bucky and Tony laughed at that as he got up, suddenly realizing he was starving. “So, I’m thinking, pancakes?”

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you all enjoy it! Please dont't forget to kudos and a comment !! it really makes my day!!
> 
> make sure to reblog Hazein art ( https://hazeinart.tumblr.com/post/628984726293807104/wis-bang-post-james-bond-au-highly-inspired ) and check her out!
> 
> if you want, you can find me on tumblr at las-lus.tumblr.com
> 
> thank you all for reading ^^


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